FHE  LITERATURE 
)F  THE  SOUTH 


VERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRAH. 


10?      .    -     :  MOSES 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Class 


THE 
LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 


BOOKS  BY 
MONTROSE  J.    MOSES 

FAMOUS  ACTOR    FAMILIES  IN   AMERICA 

8<vo,  cloth.     By  mail,  $2.2O 
THE  LITERATURE  OP  THE  SOUTH 

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THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &  CO. 
NEW  YORK 


SIDNEY    LANIER 


The  LITERATURE  of 
THE  SOUTH 


By 
Montrose  J.  Moses 


OF  THE 

UN1VERSITV 

OF 
£4t 


Thomas  Y.  Crowell  &  Company 
PUBLISHERS  :  NEW  YORK 


•  ;  ROCM 

t  L, 

JPYRIGHT,    1910 

BY  THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &  CO. 


To  the  memory  of  my  Father 


207058 


FOREWORD 

THE  title  selected  for  this  book  is  one  wherein  a 
policy  of  exclusion  could  be  systematically  adopted; 
for,  while  there  is  a  distinctive  literature  of  the  South, 
there  is  and  has  been  much  literary  activity  in  the 
South  which  has  contributed  little  or  nothing  to  the 
sectional  development.  Many  of  the  Southern  manu 
als  and  estimates  reveal  too  generous  an  inclination 
to  include  within  their  pages  the  names  of  those  whom 
sentiment  conjured  up  beyond  the  real  measure  of 
their  importance.  A  local  notoriety,  a  limited  influ 
ence,  an  occasional  inspiration,  a  sporadic  paper — all 
these  tend  to  swell  into  misguiding  proportions  a  con 
scientious  list  of  Southern  writers.  Many  there  have 
been  of  pleasing  talents,  and  of  exceptional  powers  as 
far  as  they  have  gone — but  somewhere  the  amateur 
spirit  soon  reveals  their  momentary  character. 

The  greatest  enemies  of  any  literary  movement  are 
those  who  carry  adulation  in  criticism  to  an  excess. 
Southern  literature  has,  until  recently,  found  itself 
handicapped  through  a  deplorable  lack  of  any  discrim 
inating  standards  by  which  to  judge  it.  However  uni 
fied  the  fundamental  interests  of  this  country  may  be, 
the  South — as  well  as  any  other  section — has  had  a 
growth  peculiarly  its  own.  We  would  not  deny  the  indi 
viduality  of  New  England,  even  though  that  indi 
viduality  be  recognized  as  an  element  only  in  the 
evolution  of  the  nation.  So  it  is  with  the  South — 
a  section  wherein  the  social  forces  have  conserved 
a  distinct  type  of  people  upon  its  soil — one  which, 
temperamentally  as  well  as  geographically,  claims  for 
itself  a  difference  from  its  neighbors  which  is  deeper 


viii  FOREWORD 

than  dialects  or  superficial  prejudices,  and  which  is 
coincident  with  the  life  that  fostered  it. 

By  the  literature  of  the  South,  the  idea  to  be  con 
veyed  is,  that  certain  conditions  have  conduced  to 
develop  a  species  of  writing  which  is  born  directly  of 
these  social  conditions.  The  civilization  of  the  Old 
South — the  re-forming  into  a  New  South  upon  the 
basis  of  a  large  inheritance — these  two  civilizations, 
different  from  their  neighbors  in  temperament,  in  cer 
tain  problems  of  vital  moment,  in  the  structure  of 
their  social  fabric,  have  produced  an  unmistakable 
literature,  duly  reflecting  the  mental,  moral,  and  emo 
tional  view-points  of  time  and  place. 

In  the  following  pages  an  attempt  has  been  made 
to  indicate  this  close  connection  existing  between  the 
Southern  life  and  its  literature.  Only  those  dominant  fig 
ures  are  dwelt  upon  who  had  it  within  them  to  sound 
a  sustained  note — if  they  were  poets;  to  stem  or  to 
encourage  the  tide  of  public  or  sectional  feeling — if 
they  were  public  men ;  to  create  or  to  reflect  the  true 
atmosphere  of  locality — if  they  were  novelists.  To 
apply  a  rigorous  critical  standard  is  the  only  just  way 
of  approaching  an  extensive  subject.  And  there  is 
no  denying  that  the  field  of  Southern  literature  is  a 
large  one.  Yet  if  we  discard  that  body  of  writing 
which,  though  sincere,  is  beset  by  the  stupendous  sin 
of  mediocrity,  if  we  remain  persistent  in  dwelling 
only  upon  that  writing  which  affects  or  has  influenced 
Southern  thought  and  culture,  we  shall  find,  perhaps 
in  some  cases  to  our  surprise,  that  the  development  of 
Southern  letters  has  not  been  insignificant.  The  great 
est  hindrance  to  a  clear  understanding  of  this  fact  has 
been,  undoubtedly,  the  provincial  manner  in  which  that 
literature  has  been  regarded  by  the  people  of  the  South 
in  general.  Only  within  very  recent  years  has  a  com 
parative  method  been  adopted,  wherewith  the  South 
has  been  made  to  recognize  that  its  literature,  as  an 


FOREWORD  ix 

expression  of  life,  possessed  an  organism  distinctly 
its  own.  The  culture  of  the  North  has  always  been 
vigorous  because  of  its  plastic  nature;  it  was  influ 
enced  by  forces  outside  of  itself — by  coming  into 
greater  contact  with  diverse  people,  whether  in  this 
country  or  abroad.  The  culture  of  the  South  was, 
during  the  old  regime,  well-nigh  fixed  by  the  con 
servative  lines  of  a  classical  education.  But  the  new 
outlook  changed  all  this;  to  that  culture  which  the 
South  has  always  had,  a  larger  interest  is  now  added, 
which  transcends  sectional  barriers. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  following  studies  will 
emphasize  this  close  contact  of  letters  with  the  life  of 
the  South.  The  aim  has  been  throughout,  however, 
to  escape  the  stigma  of  sectionalism.  The  South, 
per  se,  retains  its  individuality — but  its  significance, 
as  part  of  the  nation,  should  have  a  wider  under 
standing.  For  it  will  be  found  that  the  South  has 
contributed  to  American  literature,  both  by  example 
and  by  accomplishment;  that  it  has  been  original, 
even  though  much  of  its  writing  is  imitative.  The 
literature  of  the  South  is  the  literature  of  a  people, 
and  those  people — after  an  evolution  from  the  aristo 
crat  to  the  democrat,  taken  in  a  wider  sense — are 
themselves  Americans  as  wrell  as  Southerners. 

The  bibliographies  contained  in  the  Appendix  will 
bespeak  my  indebtedness  to  the  many  sources  of  an 
historical  and  social  nature.  It  is  a  pleasure  here  to 
express  my  deep  appreciation  of  the  unfailing  courtesy 
given  to  me  by  the  authorities  of  Columbia  University 
Library,  who  have  placed  at  my  disposal  every  facility ; 
in  especial,  I  would  thank  Mr.  Frederic  W.  Erb, 
whose  personal  interest  and  watchfulness  have  done 
much  to  enrich  my  bibliographies.  To  the  St.  Agnes 
Branch  of  the  New  York  Public  Library  I  also  wish 
to  extend  my  grateful  acknowledgment. 

In  a  work  of  this  nature,  the  student  is  necessarily 


x  FOREWORD 

dependent  upon  that  encouragement  which  comes  from 
correspondence  and  consultation.  It  is  a  privilege 
to  indicate  in  this  manner  the  many  services  rendered 
me  in  the  preparation  of  this  work  by  Mr.  Edgar 
Gardner  Murphy,  Professor  W.  P.  Trent,  Mr.  Henry 
Lanier,  Mrs.  Frank  Jordan,  Judge  J.  B.  Gaston,  of 
Montgomery,  Ala.,  and  Mr.  J.  Walker  McSpadden. 
Finally,  I  cannot  pass  by  the  constant  advice  and  un 
failing  interest  of  the  members  of  my  family,  whose 
unswerving  loyalty  to  the  South  is  not  to  be  ques 
tioned. 

M.  J.  M. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

FOREWORD vii 

COLONIAL   PERIOD 

TABLE  OF  AUTHORS 

I.  SOCIAL  FORCES:  THE  CHARACTER  OF  THE 
SOUTHERN  PIONEERS;  CLASS  DISTINC 
TION  ;  THE  CAVALIER  AND  THE  PURITAN 
SPIRITS  IN  THE  SOUTH  ;  GEOGRAPHICAL 
DISTRIBUTION  OF  THE  PEOPLE  ...  3 

II.  EARLY  COLONIAL  AUTHORS:  FROM  CAP 
TAIN  JOHN  SMITH  TO  EBENEZER  COOK  17 

III.  LATER  COLONIAL  AUTHORS:  FROM  JAMES 

BLAIR  TO  PATRICK  TRAILFER     ...       50 

REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD 
TABLE  OF  AUTHORS 

IV.  SOCIAL  FORCES  :  LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH  ;  A 

CONSIDERATION  OF  THE  PLANTATION  ;  A 
PICTURE  OF  THE  LANDED  PROPRIETOR 
AND  THE  STATE  OF  His  CULTURE  .  .  91 

V.  THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  STATESMAN  :  FROM 
WASHINGTON  AND  JEFFERSON  TO  MAR 
SHALL  107 

VI.  REVOLUTIONARY  LITERATURE:  POETRY  AND 

POETS 143 


xii  CONTENTS 

ANTE-BELLUM   PERIOD 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

TABLE  OP  AUTHORS 

VII.  SOCIAL  FORCES:  THE  GENTLEMAN  OF  THE 
BLACK  STOCK  AND  His  CULTURE;  ITis 
POLITICS  ;  THE  MENACE  OF  SLAVERY  ; 
THE  RISE  OF  STATES;  THE  ARISTOCRACY 
AND  THE  "POOR  WHITES  ";  TIIH  Ku.\ 
OF  AGRICULTURE 163 

VIII.  THE  VOICE  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTH;  BEING 
A  CONSIDERATION  OF  THE  LITERARY 
CLAIMS  OF  ORATORS — TYPIFIED  IN  CAL- 
HOUN,  CLAY,  AND  HAYNE  ....  191 

IX.  LOCAL  SENSE  AND  NATIVE  HUMOR     .     .218 

X.  PIONEER    NOVELISTS:    SIMMS,    KENNEDY, 

TUCKER,  AND  CARRUTHERS     ....     239 

XL  SOUTHERN    POETRY    AND    THE    CAVALIER 

SPIRIT 255 

XII.  A  SOUTHERN  MYSTERY:  AN  AUTHOR  WITH 

AND    WITHOUT    A    COUNTRY — POE       .        .       276 

CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD 
TABLE  OP  AUTHORS 

XI 1 1.  SOCIAL  FORCES:  THE  PROBLEMS  OF  SE- 
MON;  THE  ORATORS  OF  SECKSSI<>\; 
CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  COMKDI.K- 
ACY;  THE  STRESS  OF  WAR;  THE  FALL 
OF  THE  OLD  REGIME;  THE  FORCE  OF 
LEADERSHIP;  Tin:  \i:\v  SOUTH  AMIDST 

THE     RUINS.       L\TK!.I.KCTrAL    Hl-MARK  A- 

TIONS  CAUSED  BY  THE  WAR.     TlIE  Ol.I>- 

FASMIMNKII     XOVKLISTS:    JOHN     KSTKN 

COOKE,     ST.     (iKiiKHK    Tl'CKKR,    AUGl.'STA 

I '.VANS.  A  NII  UTHLKS 295 


CONTENTS  xiii 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XIV.  SOUTHERN  POETRY  OF  THE  CIVIL  WAR: 
BEING  A  CONSIDERATION  OF  CONFEDER 
ATE  LYRICS 339 

XV.  THE   SOUTHERN    SCHOOL   OF   POETRY;    I. 

LANIER 358 

XVI.  THE  SOUTHERN  SCHOOL  OF  POETRY  ;  II. 
HAYNE,  TIMROD,  TICKNOR,  AND  MRS. 
PRESTON 384 

THE    NEW    SOUTH 
TABLE  OF  AUTHORS 

XVII.  SOCIAL  FORCES:  THE  FALL  OF  THE  OLD 
REGIME;  THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  RECON 
STRUCTION  ;  A  CHANGE  OF  ECONOMIC 
BASE;  THE  NEW  PROBLEMS  AND  THEIR 
CRITICS  :  GEORGE  CABLE,  EDGAR  GARDNER 
MURPHY,  THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE,  AND 
OTHERS;  EDUCATION  IN  THE  SOUTH; 
NEGRO  LEADERSHIP:  BOOKER  T.  WASH 
INGTON,  DuBois,  AND  OTHERS;  THE  RE 
SULTS;  THE  ECONOMIC,  SOCIAL,  AND 
POLITICAL  STATUS  OF  THE  NEGRO;  THE 
FUTURE  OF  THE  "  POOR  WHITE  " ;  THE 
EMIGRANT;  INDUSTRIALISM;  DEMO 
CRATIC  TENDENCIES 417 

XVIII.  THE  NEW  SOUTH:  SOCIAL  JUSTICE  AND 
THE  LAW  ;  THE  HISTORIC  SENSE  ;  EVI 
DENCES  OF  A  CULTURAL  INITIATIVE; 
CREOLE  CULTURE  ;  MOUNTAIN  CULTURE  ; 
FOLK-SONG  AND  FOLK-LORE ;  THE  NE 
GRO  IN  LITERATURE;  THE  NOVELISTS  OF 
LOCALITY  ;  THE  LATER  CLAIMS  OF  LYRI 
CISM  ;  SUMMARY 449 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 475 

INDEX 501 


I 

COLONIAL  PERIOD 


TABLE   OF   AUTHORS 

1579-1632  ....        JOHN    SMITH        ....     Virginia 

1586-1632  ....       GEORGE    PERCY       ....     Virginia 

1610  .     .     .        WILLIAM    STRACHEY        .     .     .     Virginia 

1585-1613  .     .     .     ALEXANDER     WHITAKER     .     .     .     Virginia 

1570-1635 JOHN  PORY Virginia 

1577-1644  ....     *GEORGE     SANDYS     ....     Virginia 

.     .        FATHER    ANDREW    WHITE        .        Maryland 

1656  ....     JOHN    HAMMOND     .     .     .         Maryland 

1666  ....       GEORGE   ALSOP      '.     .     .         Maryland 

1676  .      .     .        fNATHANiEL    BACON        .      .      .     Virginia 

1708  ....      EBENEZER    COOK      .     .     .         Maryland 

1656  ....        JAMES   BLAIR        ....     Virginia 

1675-1716  ....     ROBERT    BEVERLEY     ....     Virginia 

1724        HUGH    JONES Virginia 

1674-1744  ....       WILLIAM   BYRD       ....     Virginia 

1689-1755  ....       WILLIAM  STITH       ....     Virginia 

1714  .     .     .     .      JOHN   LAWSON    .     .      .   North   Carolina 

1740  .     .     .       ALEXANDER  GARDEN      .      .   South    Carolina 

1740  ....    PATRICK  TAILFER       ....      Georgia 

*Here  also  one  must  consider  the  minor  work  of  R.  Rich,  J. 
Rolfe,  and  Col.  Henry  Norwood. 

tin  connection  with  Bacon,  the  Burwell  papers  should  be  ex 
amined  carefully. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


CHAPTER   I 
SOCIAL    FORCES 

THE  CHARACTER  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  PIONEERS; 
CLASS  DISTINCTIONS;  THE  CAVALIER  AND  THE 
PURITAN  SPIRITS  IN  THE  SOUTH;  GEOGRAPHICAL 
DISTRIBUTION  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 

THE  South  has  ever  been  bound  up  in  its  economic, 
political,  and  social  interests.  Conditions  have  molded 
character,  environment  has  fused  varied  elements, 
climate  has  affected  temperament,  until  the  type,  the 
tradition,  the  mental  attitude  and  the  verbal  expression 
have  become  products  of  the  soil  on  one  hand  and 
dutiful  servants  of  the  civilization  on  the  other.  The 
social  forces  as  they  apply  to  the  South  particularly, 
rather  than  to  America  at  large,  are  such  that  they 
stretch  far  back  into  colonial  beginnings ;  during  this 
early  period,  it  is  true,  the  observation  was  purely  an 
external  one,  but  if  the  chronicles,  reports,  and  letters 
of  the  adventurers,  colonizers,  and  royal  representa 
tives  be  examined  closely,  a  distinct  economic  con 
sciousness  will  be  traced,  no  longer  measured  in  terms 
of  dependency  upon  a  foreign  influence,  but  in  terms 
of  local  interest  and  independent  development. 

Nearly  every  feature  typical  of  Southern  life  and 
distinctive  of  Southern  history  becomes  evident  dur 
ing  the  colonial  existence ;  the  cohesive  substance  later 
seems  to  have  been  political  sanction.  No  historian 
can  define  the  boundaries  of  the  human  stream  of 


4      THE    LITERATURE    OF    THE    SOUTH 

life;  the  adventurous  spirit  of  the  explorer  passes  im 
perceptibly  into  the  practical  spirit  of  the  settler.  The 
Anglo-Saxon  blood  surged  through  the  veins  of  the 
pioneer;  the  Teuton  checked  the  spread  of  the  Latin, 
and  with  a  wonderful  power  of  absorption  added 
unto  himself  new  blood  and  ever-increasing  energy. 
By  their  fruits  shall  they  be  known,  and  so  the 
economic  indications  which  were  accentuated,  even  in 
the  colonial  era,  drew  the  first  line  of  distinction  be- 
i  the  North  and  the  South.  In  part,  this  was 
due  to  climatic  differences,  to  political  unlikeness;  but 
it  was  equally  as  much  the  result  of  the  different 
motives  of  colonization,  and  the  dissimilarity  of  social 
institutions  brought  over  from  the  mother  country. 
It  is  hard  to  say  where  the  colonial  writer  first  sounds 
the  American  note;  it  is  still  more  difficult  to  tabulate 
those  social  forces  which  gave  rise  to  a  distinctively 
Southern  Literature. 

For  that  reason,  the  critic,  while  resorting  to  the 
historical  method,  must  be  wary  for  fear  of  losing  the 
literature  in  the  life.  The  Southerner  as  a  type  is  very 
much  greater  than  the  Southerner  as  a  literary  artist ; 
in  fact,  nowhere  can  we  afford  to  lose  the  man  in  the 
writer,  so  strong  is  his  inheritance,  so  individual  his 
personality,  so  typical  his  action,  so  peculiar  his  cast 
of  thought.  The  art  value  is  in  no  way  to  be  com 
pared  with  the  life  value  of  Southern  Literature. 

Considering  the  limitations  placed  upon  the  South 
by  time  and  circumstance,  limitations  which  at  first 
were  not  strong  enough  to  prevent  the  development 
of  the  constructive  statesman,  but  which  later 
changed  the  constructive  into  a  destructive  statesman ; 
considering  the  fact  that  the  incubus  of  slavery,  at 
first  only  an  economic  factor,  affected  the  whole  life 
of  a  people  from  ivithin,  likewise  modifying  the 
dominant  practical  interest  of  that  life,  agriculture — 
the  life,  one  must  confess,  exceeded  its  limitations  by 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  5 

a  very  superior,  a  very  rare  type  of  manhood  and 
womanhood.  Its  culture  was  distinctively  Old 
World;  its  law,  its  religion,  its  social  demarcations, 
were  British  long  after  the  political  severance  which 
Virginians  did  so  much  to  bring  about.  Slavery 
helped  to  keep  the  South  in  a  feudal  state. 

The  fusion  of  peoples  is  one  of  the  mysteries  of 
nature;  it  is  the  dominant  force  which  kept  the  South 
of  colonial  times  from  being  no  more  nor  less  than 
a  checkerboard  upon  which  the  moves  of  English, 
French,  and  Spanish  colonizers  were  prompted  by  the 
state  of  European  politics.  There  were  two  facts 
about  England's  territorial  acquisition:  first,  there 
was  a  determination  to  keep  the  French  of  Louisiana 
and  the  French  of  Canada  from  meeting  across  the 
Ohio  and  Illinois  territory ;  and  second,  there  was  the 
Anglo-Saxon  spirit  of  the  pioneers,  of  whom  none 
were  greater  than  the  English  traders  who  pushed 
across  the  Allegheny  ridge,  almost  to  the  very  picket 
fences  of  the  French  trading  posts.  The  Teuton 
spirit  persisted  for  a  long  while  with  the  Latin,  but  the 
English  were  not  content  with  the  territory  between 
the  mountains  and  the  sea.  Colonial  history  indicates 
the  manner  in  which  the  French  and  Spaniards  left 
their  impress  upon  Southern  soil ;  to-day,  New  Or 
leans,  Mobile,  and  St.  Augustine  bear  visible  traces; 
the  Creoles  have  developed  an  independent  literature 
which  has  never  been  adequately  valued,  though  the 
life  has  afforded  picturesque  opportunity  to  Cable. 

The  presence  of  the  Latin  did  not  materially  en 
hance  the  fusion  of  which  we  speak ;  it  occurred  in  the 
unifying  of  the  various  elements  of  the  Teutonic 
race.  This  fusion  hardly  involved  the  Latins  at  all; 
as  a  nation  our  foreign  diplomacy  in  its  first  years 
was  concerned  with  ridding  the  country  of  continental 
ownership;  consciousness  of  an  economic  demand 
opened,  however  unconstitutionally,  the  vast  stretch 


6      THE    LITERATURE    OF    THE    SOUTH 

of  the  Mississippi  Valley;  the  Spanish  possessions  in 
volved  us  in  war,  and  our  final  acquisition  did  not 
reflect  credit  on  our  transaction,  though  it  gave  us 
undisputed  possession  from  ocean  to  ocean.  It  is 
rather  significant  that  up  to  the  period  of  the  Civil 
War,  the  South  in  its  territorial  boundaries  was  very 
unsettled.  The  Southern  states  carved  from  the  orig 
inal  colonies  were  born  only  after  a  travail  which  in 
volved  the  political  protection  of  slavery  through  a 
political  distribution  of  the  balance  of  power,  and 
which  also  impressed  the  South  with  the  need  for 
more  land  to  satisfy  the  extravagant  demand  of  one 
absorbing  product — cotton.  "  The  Civil  War,"  writes 
Dr.  Ballagh,  "  was  but  a  logical  sequel  to  the  economic 
development  of  the  i8th  century." 

From  the  very  outset,  the  South  was  pledged  to  an 
agricultural  life ;  the  easy  cultivation  of  the  land,  the 
beneficent,  almost  prodigal  influence  of  the  climate, 
together  with  the  commercial  policy  of  England 
tended  to  make  it  the  only  course.  It  was  likewise  in 
consonance  with  the  natural  inclinations  of  a  landed 
gentry,  whose  large  estates  and  plantations  encour 
aged  a  wide  dispersion  of  population  and  a  conse 
quent  lack  of  city  life.  The  rural  character  of  the 
people,  therefore,  had  much  to  do  with  the  general 
measure  of  culture  which  flourished,  despite  the  land 
system  and  the  labor  system,  but  which,  in  its  classical 
character,  in  its  unprogressive  character,  was  not  hos 
pitable  to  experiments  in  thought,  any  more  than  its 
economics  welcomed  time-saving  devices  to  compete 
with  its  slave  labor  which  represented,  per  se,  not  only 
labor  but  invested  capital. 

In  all  these  things  which  the  South  was,  New  Eng 
land  was  not ;  thus  early  we  can  see  how  unevenly  the 
future  exactions  and  benefits  of  tariff,  of  any  protec 
tion  of  things  outside  of  the  raw  material,  would  fall 
on  the  Southern  trader — an  inequality  which  was  one 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  7 

of  the  chief  causes  of  irritation  in  ante-bellum  congres 
sional  debate.  The  land  system  encouraged  extrava 
gance  and  lavishness  on  a  broad  scale.  The  Southern 
planter  was  a  center  unto  himself;  owning  large  tracts 
in  the  tidewater  district,  he  most  generally  had  his 
own  wharf  from  which  his  product  was  snipped,  to 
which  his  English  purchases  were  sent.  This  neither 
encouraged  road  building,  nor  intercourse,  nor  con 
sequent  exchange  of  ideas ;  he  would  cultivate  perhaps 
fifty  acres  out  of  a  probable  fifty  thousand  acres  com 
prising  his  estate. 

The  colonial  South  is  very  largely  the  early  history 
of  Virginia ;  here  were  not  only  rooted  English  tra 
ditions,  social,  economic,  and  religious,  but  likewise 
there  emanated  from  her  those  streams  of  emigrants 
which  were  to  enrich  the  land,  even  as  she  gave  of 
her  own  accord  from  her  grants  to  make  other  terri 
tories.  Unlike  New  England,  she  came  to  the  west 
ern  world, not  in  dissent  from  the  Established  Church; 
but,  in  turn,  around  her  and  within  her  were  to  be 
found  those  other  sects  which  later  helped,  through 
a  less  rigid  aristocratic  society,  to  differentiate  the 
Upper  from  the  Lower  South.  In  Virginia  were  de 
fined  those  gradations  of  land  values  which  made  the 
tidewater  ownership  a  mark  of  social  distinction,  even 
as,  to  a  lesser  degree,  they  so  became  in  the  Black  Belt 
district  after  the  invention  of  the  cotton  gin.* 

A  study  of  the  several  forms  of  colonial  establish 
ment,  of  the  distinctive  characteristics  of  "  home  rule  " 
during  this  initial  period  which  distinguished  France 
from  Spain,  and  both  from  England,  and  finally  of 
the  Indian  difficulties  which  beset  the  pioneers,  may  be 
dispensed  with  as  belonging  to  the  historian.  We  need 
to  concern  ourselves  chiefly  with  the  migration  and 
fusion  of  peoples,  which  affected  the  character  of  the 

*  See  my  article,  "  The  Social  Life  in  the  Lower  South,"  in 
"  The  South  in  the  Building  of  the  Nation." 


8      THE    LITERATURE    OF    THE    SOUTH 

Southern  pioneers,  raising1  class  distinction  on  a  trans 
planted  feudal  system — a  system  which  inculcated 
those  narrow  prejudices  of  a  merely  external  nature, 
and  which  put  upon  the  mind  certain  formal  strictures 
inimical  to  freedom  of  thought  and  to  originality  of 
view-point.  The  Southerner  was  great  despite  his  en 
vironment ;  he  was  great  even  though  oligarchical 
tendencies,  inherent  in  slavery  and  in  isolation,  were 
a  constant  source  of  temptation,  as  well  as  a  personal 
menace. 

Emigration  in  colonial  times  was  prompted  by  the 
adventurous  spirit  in  part,  but  chiefly  because  of  the 
political  difficulties  besetting  nations  on  the  Continent 
and  because  of  the  religious  dissensions  which  fluctu 
ated  between  Protestantism  and  Catholicism.  Every 
change  among  the  nations  which  affected  the  map  and 
history  of  Europe,  had  its  consequent  effect  upon  the 
colonies.  Escaping  persecution,  the  colonists  were 
far  from  reaching  a  land  of  religious  toleration,  and 
many  a  bitter  experience  had  to  be  gone  through  be 
fore  Patrick  Henry's  plea  for  religious  liberty  in  the 
i6th  article  of  the  Declaration  of  Rights  (1776),  or 
Jefferson's  more  far-reaching  efforts  in  the  same  cause. 

The  South  was  peopled  through  pioneer  restless 
ness,  through  economic  necessity,  through  lack  of  reli 
gious  toleration.  In  broad  statement,  the  dispersion 
took  three  courses:  into  North  Carolina  from  Vir 
ginia,  thence  in  a  southwesterly  direction ;  across  the 
Appalachian  mountains,  opening  the  Middle  West; 
and  again  to  the  southwest  through  the  Mississippi 
Valley.  The  movement  into  Kentucky  was  the  begin 
ning  of  the  march  to  the  Pacific  slope. 

The  comparative  historian  will  say  that  one  of  the 
fundamental  differences  between  early  Virginia  and 
Massachusetts  was  "the  greater  homogeneity  of  the 
English  stock  in  New  England,"  due  to  the  predomi 
nance  of  a  middle  class.  Indeed,  it  would  seem  at  first 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  9 

as  though  the  aristocratic  South  would  allow  of  no 
intermediate  life ;  but  not  only  did  the  migration  from 
the  tidewater  district  take  away  from  the  inherent 
strength  of,  although  not  at  first  affecting,  the  landed 
prestige,  but  it  likewise  afforded  opportunity  for 
energy  which  otherwise  would  have  become  stagnant. 
With  the  trend  of  population  toward  the  southwest, 
even  though  social  and  economic  traditions  were 
carried  from  Virginia,  there  began  that  democratiza 
tion  of  character,  if  not  of  political  structure,  which 
Mr.  Edgar  Gardner  Murphy  analyzes  so  carefully. 

The  tidewater  aristocracy  was  pledged  to  the  Estab 
lished  Church;  so  assured  was  this  fact  in  the  minds 
both  of  the  people  at  home  and  abroad,  that  the  Vir 
ginia  clergy  grew  lax  in  their  morals  and  careless  in 
their  practice  of  doctrine.  Perhaps  the  earnestness  and 
fervor  of  the  Dissenters,  who  sought  entrance  into  Vir 
ginia  and  so  obtained  strong  foothold  in  the  Lower 
South,  found  advantage  in  this  deplorable  condition. 
In  the  over-accentuation  of  Cavalier  romanticism,  the 
modern  reader  is  prone  to  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that 
Puritanism  was  a  strong  factor  in  the  formation  of 
Southern  civilization. 

The  struggle  for  religious  liberty  in  Virginia  was  a 
long  and  bitter  one.  At  the  same  time  that  we  treas 
ure  the  remark  of  Governor  Berkeley  concerning  free 
schools  and  printing,  as  a  measure  of  educational  en 
couragement  in  1650,  it  were  as  well  to  bear  in  mind 
the  reasoning  of  Governor  Gooch  (1738)  who,  while 
welcoming  Presbyterians  and  Quakers  into  the  Shen- 
andoah  Valley  in  his  desire  to  people  the  territory 
west  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  was  none  the  less  calculating 
upon  placing  a  defense  between  himself  and  the  In 
dians.  As  one  authority  claims,  the  Presbyterians 
were  a  "  buffer "  sect,  who  had  to  pay  toll  to  the 
Church  of  England. 

The  sectarian  movement  has  been  a  strong  one  in 


io     THE    LITERATURE    OF    THE    SOUTH 

the  South ;  it  was  not  only  one  of  the  prime  impulses 
of  colonial  diffusion,  but  it  likewise  was  one  of  the 
chief  sources,  later,  for  the  extension  of  educational 
matters.  The  Scotch-Irish  strain  which  to-day  per 
sists  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley  was  not  confined  alone 
to  that  section,  and  Presbyterianism  itself  soon  be 
came  somewhat  of  a  formidable  proposition  for  the 
Established  Church  to  consider.  Virginia  history  is 
full  of  pre-Revolutionary  petitions  to  eliminate  legis 
lation  against  sect,  and  to  prohibit  the  persecutions 
which  were  of  common  occurrence.  As  late  as  April, 
1774,  Monroe  wrote  to  Bradford,  of  Philadelphia: 
"  The  sentiments  of  our  people  of  fortune  and  fashion 
on  this  subject  are  vastly  different  from  what  you 
have  been  used  to.  That  liberal,  catholic,  and  equi 
table  way  of  thinking,  as  to  the  rights  of  conscience, 
which  is  one  of  the  characteristics  of  a  free  people, 
and  so  strongly  marks  the  people  of  your  province,  is 
little  known  among  the  zealous  adherents  to  our 
hierarchy."  We  shall  see  later  from  what  type  of 
mind  emanated  the  tendency  to  criticise  the  South 
from  within  her  very  civilization. 

"  While  in  breadth,"  writes  Mr.  Hamilton,  "  the 
Southern  character  may  owe  more  to  Virginia,  in  in 
tensity  it  looks  to  Carolina.  The  later  common 
wealth  of  Georgia  had  an  independent  English  origin, 
while  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  were  the  second 
growth,  the  new  start  beyond  the  mountains,  of  the 
new  Americans."  Across  the  borders  of  Virginia, 
cutting  through  virgin  forest,  came  those  who,  on  one 
hand,  were  unwelcome  dissenters,  and  who,  on  the 
other  hand,  were  pushed  away  from  the  tidewater 
district  because  of  inability  to  obtain  land  holding. 
There  were  in  the  South  three  ranks  of  peoples  de 
scribed  in  terms  of  their  economic  location :  the  large 
plantation  owners;  the  men  either  dependent  in  a 
feudal  manner  upon  an  overlord,  or  else  relegated  to 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  n 

soil  upon  which  it  was  a  struggle  to  raise  plentifully; 
and  the  scrub  settler,  who  either  took  to  the  moun 
tains  or  was  pent  up  in  mind  and  body  among  the 
pine  barrens.  The  North  Carolinian  therefore  was 
tempered  more  democratically,  a  rougher  element  of 
civilization  in  comparison  with  the  South  Carolinian 
below,  or  the  Virginian  above ;  nor  did  he  possess  the 
flavor  that  existed  to  the  immediate  South,  brought 
by  the  Huguenots,  who  arrived  after  the  Revocation 
of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  (1685). 

The  wave  of  population  pulsed  South  along  the  At 
lantic  coast,  injecting  strains  of  the  Scotch-Irish,  the 
German  Protestant,  the  French  Huguenot  into  the 
web  and  woof  of  Southern  life.  This  power  of  as 
similation  is  the  vital  force  of  Anglo-Saxon  inherit 
ance.  The  Lutheran  Swiss,  preserving  their  German 
tongue,  persisted  in  Carolina ;  the  Presbyterians,  some 
of  whom  were  known  as  backwoods  Virginians, 
moved  with  the  current;  redemptioners  increased  the 
flow.  It  was  a  mixture  of  social,  economic,  and  relig 
ious  causes  that  populated  the  South.  Georgia,  asylum 
for  dissenters  and  for  the  social  outcast,  received  like 
wise  Salzburgers,  Lutherans,  and  Moravians,  and  first 
nurtured  the  propagators  of  Methodism.  Wherever 
the  Spaniard  touched,  wherever  the  French,  with  their 
effective  methods  of  colonization,  blazed  a  trail,  there 
were  left  permanent  and  salient  evidences  of  Catholi 
cism.  The  Jesuit  as  explorer,  as  pioneer,  is  a  most  im 
portant  figure. 

The  establishment  of  a  Catholic  community  to  the 
north  of  Virginia  did  much  to  raise  suspicion  of  the 
Protestant  English,  who  often  brought  forward  accu 
sations  against  Maryland's  sympathy  with  the  French. 
Probably  this  opposition  was  due  equally  as  much  to 
the  jealous  realization  of  a  lack  of  political  privileges 
which  were  extended  to  the  Calverts  by  the  Crown. 
Writing  of  this  palatinate,  the  historian  calls  attention 


12     THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

to  the  preservation  therein  of  ancient  Teutonic  cus 
toms. 

It  is  not  to  be  inferred  that  this  migratory  activity 
occurred  at  concerted  times  in  the  colonial  period 
alone;  after  the  Revolution,  after  cotton  in  its  way 
offered  through  the  cotton  gin  the  same  extensive 
opportunity  for  trade  that  tobacco  had  offered  in  Vir 
ginia,  the  stream  percolated  southward  from  Tennes 
see.  To  repeat,  the  South  geographically  during  the 
initial  period,  when  its  extension  or  restriction  meant 
either  the  maintenance  or  curtailment  of  its  political 
influence,  when  the  strength  of  its  social  system  de 
pended  upon  the  conviction  that  slavery  had  a  right 
to  spread,  was  not  a  fixed  quantity.  In  the  South, 
territorial  adjustment  began  at  a  critical  national 
moment. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  by  social  students  that  the 
Calvinism  of  colonial  New  England  was  more  con 
ducive  to  originality  of  mental  attitude  than  adher 
ence  to  an  already  established  form ;  that  the  North 
erner  came  to  a  virgin  land  to  make  a  different  law 
rather  than  to  uphold  traditional  law  which  in  the 
South  was  one  of  the  requirements  of  colonization. 
The  Puritan  with  his  Protestant  spirit,  was,  according 
to  Professor  Shaler,  "  leading  a  great  body  of  men 
out  of  this  castellated  state  of  mind  toward  more 
modern  ways  of  thought.  The  feudal  system,  al 
though  it  had  noble  qualities,  was  essentially  hedonis 
tic  ;  it  was  based  on  an  elevated  savagery ;  under  its 
dominion,  men  were  forced  to  shape  their  lives  mainly 
on  personal  considerations."  It  will  be  seen,  when  the 
time  comes  to  discuss  the  state  of  colonial  culture,  as 
typified  in  the  establishment  of  schools  and  the  publi 
cation  of  newspapers,  how  the  laws  of  economics  thus 
practiced,  of  society  thus  founded,  and  of  religion 
thus  transplanted  and  thus  imposed,  reacted  upon  the 
character  of  the  Southern  colonist  who  was  to  become 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  13 

the  Revolutionist.  The  contest  for  religious  liberty, 
the  demand  for  just  representation,  while  actuated  by 
the  increase  of  local  interest,  were  nevertheless  repre 
sentative  of  the  basic  characteristics  of  Englishmen, 
rather  than  of  typical  Southerners  or  Americans.  It 
was  not  a  difficult  matter,  under  the  social  system,  for 
city  life — the  little  that  existed — to  be  predominantly 
aristocratic;  Charleston  very  early  surpassed  Wil- 
liamsburg  in  that  respect.  It  was  most  logical,  in  the 
face  of  the  wastefulness  of  natural  advantages,  that 
the  planter,  early  imbued  with  the  mistaken  idea  that 
labor  was  not  for  the  gentry,  should  grow  proud,  con 
servative,  aloof:  content  with  a  primitive  neighbor 
hood,  improvident  in  his  trading  method,  unfriendly 
toward  the  idea  of  colonial  commerce,  and  more  de 
pendent — because  of  his  isolation  and  his  disregard 
for  the  artisan,  the  small  farmer — upon  English  sup 
plies. 

No  weakness  of  character  encouraged  the  condi 
tions  which  mark  the  colonial  South;  neither  did  the 
colonists  themselves  premeditatedly  determine  the 
trend  of  emigration.  The  myriad  forces  of  life,  the 
immediate  necessities  of  existence  shaped  the  course. 
However  speculative  one  may  regard  the  statement,  it 
is  very  probable  that  had  the  Puritan,  as  Professor 
Shaler  believes,  settled  in  the  South  he  would  have 
fallen  into  the  same  channels — the  soil,  climate,  and 
physical  demarcations  determining  the  line  of  least  re 
sistance.  Slavery  was  marked  for  the  South  simply 
because  New  England  conditions  were  unfriendly  to 
its  firm  establishment.  As  an  adventurer,  as  a  repre 
sentative  of  English  interests,  the  first  settler  came 
more  in  the  spirit  of  visitor,  of  observer,  of  speculator, 
than  of  resident;  his  literary  expression  was  wholly 
practical,  wholly  external ;  his  spiritual  requirements 
were  secondary  to  his  physical  needs.  His  conscience 
was  not  disturbed  like  that  of  his  far-off  neighbor  in 


14     THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

Massachusetts,  who  gathered  with  his  fellows  in 
meeting  houses,  and  upheld  the  rigorous  life  rather 
than  ease  and  comfort.  The  New  Englander  did  for 
himself;  the  Virginian  relied  on  his  agent  for  trans 
actions,  never  certain  whether  the  value  of  tobacco 
would  cover  the  expense  of  his  needs,  and  wasting 
much  more  because  of  his  dependency  on  others  than 
he  would  have  had  to  pay  for  his  dependency  on 
himself. 

The  colonial  writer  was  hardly  literary  in  his 
product;  he  saw  with  a  keen  eye,  sometimes  a  vivid 
eye;  if  he  showed  feeling,  it  was  the  accident  of  the 
occasion  rather  than  the  art  instinct.  He  was  an  Eng 
lish  observer,  until  he  became  established  and  until  his 
personal  interests  were  bound  up  in  the  soil  around 
him.  Then  his  writing  exhibited  an  interpretation  of 
affairs  in  terms,  not  of  English  advantage,  but  of 
colonial  advantage;  then  he  sounded  a  note  which 
indicated  clearly  that  he  was  identifying  the  rights  of 
Englishmen  closely  with  the  rights  of  the  colonists, 
while  gradually  the  political  gulf  widened. 
^  Colonial  literature  in  the  South  is  of  more  historical 
value  than  of  literary  excellence ;  it  is  rich  in  fact  and 
attitude,  it  is  warm  in  personality.  Occasionally,  the 
English  culture  of  the  I7th  century  predominates 
over  the  inventory  style,  and  the  reason  is  usually 
found  in  the  life,  the  education  of  the  authors.  As 
a  general  rule,  each  represented  a  particular  phase  of 
colonial  life;  none  of  them  typified  any  great  expres 
sion  of  life  or  art;  their  imagination  hardly  went  be 
yond  their  immediate  vision,  but  their  humor  was 
often  of  quaint  and  human  quality,  debarring  a  coarse 
ness  characteristic  of  the  age.  Some  of  the  literature 
was  purely  the  transplanted  commodity,  here  and 
there  tempered  probably  by  the  environment,  as  in  the 
case  of  Sandys. 

The  student  must  take  this  period  in  bulk  as  an 


COLONIAL   PERIOD  15 

English  beginning,  on  new  soil,  of  some  literary  ex 
pression;  to  brush  it  aside  would  be  a  loss  to  social 
estimate,  for  in  Blair  there  is  the  epitome  of  the  best 
colonial  activity  in  the  direction  of  culture;  in  Byrd, 
the  symbol  of  the  landed  gentry,  one  detects,  from  his 
biography  and  from  his  personal  manuscripts,  all  the 
charm  and  all  the  evil  underlying  colonial  life.  The 
men  who  are  discussed  in  the  following  section,  in 
their  several  ways,  represent  expression  in  different 
fields,  and,  what  is  more,  indicate  a  certain  local  dif 
ference.  Never  intended  for  literature,  such  writing 
is  of  value  because  being  English  it  is  part  of  the 
American  inheritance.  Until  the  Civil  War  laid  the 
country  in  devastation,  this  English  stamp  was  evident 
visually;  even  to-day  the  Southerner  has  not  lost  his 
Anglo-Saxon  bearing. 

A  source  book  of  American  Literature  cannot 
ignore  these  men,  even  though,  in  the  realization  that 
France  plays  small  part  in  American  character,  the 
historical  writer  gives  but  small  consideration  to  the 
body  of  French  material  produced  by  the  French  ex 
plorer  and  settler,  especially  the  letters  of  La  Salle 
and  Iberville,  and  the  numberless  French  histories 
and  memoirs.  These  records,  these  diaries,  these 
"  relations  "  are  not  dull  reading,  though  they  often 
repeat;  they  present  the  land  attitude,  the  slave  atti 
tude,  the  plantation  attitude  in  all  their  diverse  ele 
ments.  In  its  incipiency  you  will  detect  the  Southern 
attitude,  in  so  far  as  social  forces  molded  the  South 
ern  life.  It  is  not  strange  that  the  practical  account 
should  dominate  over  fanciful  imagination;  nor  is  it 
hard  to  determine  why  the  intensity  of  spiritual  ex 
pression  was  greater  in  Massachusetts  than  in  Vir 
ginia.  The  Bible  influenced  whatever  style  existed  in 
New  England;  literature  was  there  handed  out  with 
direct  injunction  and  personal  effect. 

Professor  Tyler  has  epitomized  the  incentives  to 


16    THE    LITERATURE   OF   THE    SOUTH 

writing  in  the  colonies,  incentives  which  in  themselves 
suggest  a  legitimate  reason  why  in  the  primeval  forest 
there  was  scarcely  reflected  any  of  the  literary  bril 
liancy  and  spontaneity  at  home.  The  colonist  was  as 
yet  not  acclimatized ;  he  needed  to  communicate  across 
seas;  the  terms  of  his  crown  privileges  attached 
him  legally  to  the  mother  country ;  he  had  to  defend 
the  new  land  against  evil  report;  he  had  to  satisfy 
English  curiosity  as  to  the  strange  customs  of  the  In 
dians  ;  he  had  to  describe  the  natural  benefits  close  at 
hand.  He  was  an  observer  on  the  surface,  and  did 
not  immediately  take  root.  As  I  have  said,  a  study 
of  the  colonial  life  in  the  South,  economically,  socially, 
and  spiritually,  will  clearly  indicate  the  ingredients  of 
Southern  civilization  as  they  developed  up  to  the  Civil 
War.  With  a  sufficient  historical  knowledge,  one  will 
instantly  detect  how  these  forces  are  further  reflected 
even  in  a  body  of  literature  which  professed  to  be 
nothing  more  than  it  was — a  record  of  beginnings. 


CHAPTER    II 

EARLY  COLONIAL   AUTHORS 
FROM   CAPTAIN  JOHN   SMITH  TO  EBENEZER  COOK 

THE  colonial  author,  evolved  from  the  social  condi 
tions  and  social  changes  thus  traced,  cannot  be  said  to 
present  a  very  prepossessing  figure  as  far  as  original 
ity  of  thought  or  imaginative  scope  are  concerned. 
He  was  as  much  an  Englishman  in  his  manner  of  ex 
pression,  as  though  he  had  never  left  his  home.  It  was 
only  when  the  adventurer,  seeking  treasure  in  an  un 
known  land,  finally  became  -fixed  to  the  soil ;  when  ob 
servation  of  the  natural  richness  and  of  the  strange 
character  of  the  natives  had  given  way  to  a  species  of 
economic  and  social  writing — when,  in  other  words, 
sentiment  itself  became  attached  to  locality  in  the  new 
world,  that  the  colonial  author  might  with  impunity 
be  considered  a  native  product. 

The  literary  value  of  much  of  this  early  material 
is  a  very  negative  one,  if  taken  by  itself.  But  if  taken 
as  a  supplement  to  the  conditions  out  of  which  it 
grew,  the  reasons  for  an  extensive  consideration  will 
become  apparent.  For  there  is  as  much  difference 
between  the  view-point  of  Captain  John  Smith  or 
William  Strachey  and  of  the  Reverend  James  Blair  or 
Colonel  William  Byrd,  as  there  is  between  the  first 
adventurer  and  the  landed  proprietor;  and  there  is  a 
corresponding  difference  in  the  writings  of  each. 

What  we  must  chiefly  seek  in  the  literature  of  this 
period  are  the  freshness  of  attitude,  the  naive  child 
ishness  with  which  impressions  were  taken  in  and  re 
corded  ;  we  must  not  hope  to  detect  any  special  striv- 

17 


i8     THE    LITERATURE    OF    THE    SOUTH 

ing  after  art,  for  in  most  cases  we  will  find  the  author 
making  excuses  that  his  pen  is  so  devoid  of  all  the  grace 
and  subtlety  which  marked  the  Elizabethan  writers. 
And  yet,  though  the  colonial  author  was  not  so  very 
different  from  the  Englishman  at  home,  he  was  placed 
in  the  midst  of  an  environment  whose  possibilities 
were  yet  unsounded  ;  he  was  practically  alone  in  a  land 
of  natural  beauty  and  of  lurking  mystery.,  He  had 
come — unlike  the  Northern  colonist — for  adventurous 
reasons  only,  and  at  first  with  no  idea  of  making  a 
home.  His  writing  was  not  prompted  by  any  great 
religious  fervor,  nor  did  his  conscience  tinge  the  tenor 
of  his  thoughts.  But  in  the  main,  the  channels 
through  which  he  expressed  himself  are  seen  to  be  not 
si »  far  removed  from  those  of  the  New  Englanders. 
Like  them,  he  was  away  from  home;  like  them,  he  was 
dependent  upon  English  rule;  like  them,  he  soon  real- 
i/ed  that  he  was  growing  to  regard  his  settlement 
with  a  degree  of  pride,  defending  it  against  maligners 
at  home  and  abroad.  He  was  not  a  religious  dis 
senter,  therefore  his  faith  need  not  trouble  him,  except 
in  so  far  as  he  soon  found  it  necessary  to  provide  min 
isters  from  England.  The  intolerance  affecting  Vir 
ginia  was,  however,  not  cast  aside  heedlessly  by  what 
so  many  historians  call  the  Cavalier  spirit  of  the 
South;  it  did  have  its  effect  upon  the  people,  and  as 
we  have  already  shown,  Puritanism  was  one  of  the 
strong  elements,  though  not  the  dominant  one,  mold 
ing  the  Southern  character. 

Therefore,  the  forms  of  expression  fell  naturally 
into  the  channels  of  practical  interest  rather  than  of 
creative  imagination — expression  founded  upon  obser 
vation  and  action,  not  upon  contemplation.  These  men 
were  travelers,  hence  letters  and  reports  must  neces 
sarily  be  sent  home;  their  laws  had  their  sources 
across  seas,  hence  recommendations  had  to  be  penned. 
As  to  that  local  pride  already  noted,  Professor  Moses 


COLONIAL   PERIOD  19 

Coit  Tyler  finds  that  in  defending  his  land  against 
evil  reports,  the  colonial  author  developed  the  one  dis 
tinct  class  of  colonial  writing — American  Apologetics. 
He  may,  in  his  descriptions,  in  his  records,  in  his  his 
tories,  have  written  with  some  facility,  and  in  his  ser 
mons  have  revealed  some  spiritual  intensity.  In  his 
poetry,  poor  as  it  is  in  quantity  and  quality,  he  may 
have  shown  some  slight  native  color,  feeling  and 
humor, — but  he  sounded  no  original  note.  In  fact, 
the  sum  total  of  all  this  literary  activity  might  just  as 
well  have  been  done  in  any  other  land — he  still  would 
have  remained  the  English  adventurer  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  It  is  in  the  defense  of  himself  that  we  detect, 
for  the  first  time,  a  new  note  which  might  be  called 
American. 

The  commencements  of  our  Southern  literature  and 
our  colonial  history  are  simultaneous.  In  both  in 
stances,  the  first  definite  figure  to  be  met  with  is  Cap 
tain  John  Smith  (1579-1632),  a  hardy,  rough, 
weather-beaten  soldier  of  extensive  experience,  who 
was  no  less  proud  of  his  campaigns  than  he  was  of  his 
authorship.  With  a  warrior's  freedom,  he  has  colored 
his  narratives,  yet,  withal,  there  is  a  sincerity  that  lends 
charm,  and  a  directness  that  is  simple  and  effective. 
The  reason  he  did  so  much  for  the  colony  that  began 
its  struggle  in  1607  was  because  he  himself  had  been 
subject  to  hard  labor,  even  to  slavery  in  the  Far  East ; 
he  understood  what  work  could  accomplish ;  and,  if 
sloth  intervened,  he  also  knew  what  work  under  the 
yoke  would  do.  Smith's  experience  before  he  came 
to  Virginia  was  what  saved  the  colonists  at  James 
town.  He  was  practical,  and  was  proud  of  it. 
Herein,  therefore,  is  the  large  value  of  his  work  as  a 
writer;  he  himself  claims  as  much.  And  because 
Smith,  in  all  he  narrates,  has  been  "a  reall  Actor," 
such  early  historians  as  Strachey  and  Stith  have  relied 
chiefly  upon  him. 


20    THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

As  an  author,  Smith  may  be  considered  almost 
voluminous.  In  reality,  there  are  but  three  pieces 
that  need  occupy  us  in  our  consideration ;  his  writings 
dealing  with  observations  in  New  England,  Europe, 
Asia,  and  Africa,  do  not  differ,  except  in  detail,  from 
his  other  accounts.  What  standard  to  apply  to  his 
authorship  has  been  set  by  himself  in  his  dedication 
to  "  The  Generall  Historic  of  Virginia,  New  England, 
and  the  Summer  Isles,"  addressed  to  the  Duchess  of 
Richmond  and  Lenox :  "  This  history  .  .  .  might 
and  ought  to  haue  beene  clad  in  better  robes  then  my 
rude  military  hand  can  cut  out  in  Paper  Ornaments. 
But  because,  of  the  most  things  therein,  I  am  no  Com 
piler  by  hearsay,  but  haue  beene  a  reall  Actor ;  I  take 
my  selfe  to  haue  a  propertie  in  them:  and  therefore 
haue  beene  bold  to  challenge  them  to  come  vnder 
the  reach  of  my  owne  rough  pen.  ...  I  am  so  bold 
as  to  call  so  piercing,  and  so  glorious  an  Eye,  as  your 
Grace,  to  view  those  poore  ragged  lines." 

Such  a  book  written  by  Smith,  after  he  had  been 
removed  from  the  scenes  of  his  adventures,  presents 
a  picture  in  many  aspects.  Th,ere  is  the  author  seek 
ing  patronage — the  same  patronage  which  Shakespeare 
himself  felt  he  could  not  do  without;  there  is  the 
gallant  knight  beneath  the  hale  exterior,  praising  the 
women  who  had  come  to  his  aid  at  parlous  times; 
there  is  the  experienced  colonist,  bold  in  his  criticism 
of  the  "  covetousnes,  ielousies,  and  idlenes  "  in  Vir 
ginia, — direct  in  his  statements  as  to  where  the  oppor 
tunities  of  James  I.  lay  in  this  new  realm  of  his, 
urgent  in  his  plea  to  have  the  colony  encouraged, 
and  unconsciously  earnest  in  the  statements  of  how 
much  he  had  accomplished  in  his  efforts  to  preserve 
peace  and  justice. 

The  first  of  Smith's  books  dealing  with  the  South 
was :  "  A  True  Relation  of  Such  occurrences  and  ac 
cidents  of  noate  as  hath  hapnd  in  Virginia  Since  the 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  21 

first  planting  of  that  Collony,  which  is  now  resident 
in  the  South  part  thereof,  till  the  last  returne  from 
thence.  Written  by  Captaine  Smith,  Coronell  of  the 
said  collony,  to  a  worshipfull  friend  of  his  in  Eng 
land.  London:  Printed  by  lohn  Tappe,  and  are  to 
bee  solde  at  the  Grey-hound  in  Paules  Church-yard, 
by  W.  W.  1608." 

"  The  bluff  Captain  just  stabbed  his  paper  with  inken 
words,"  writes  Professor  Tyler;  indeed  it  is  very  evi 
dent  that  Smith  did  not  intend  his  account  to  be  pub 
lished,  but  only  to  serve  as  a  document  of  information 
for  the  heads  of  the  adventurous  companies.  The 
manuscript  was  written  before  he  was  forced  to  return 
to  England;  it  was  carried,  with  the  ink  hardly  dry, 
on  the  return  trip  of  Captain  Nelson.  When  it  found 
its  way  into  print,  its  authorship  was  attributed  to 
"  Thomas  Watson,  Gent.,  one  of  the  said  Collony," 
although  Smith's  name  was  later  substituted,  with 
apologies  by  an  editor  who  probably  mutilated  many 
of  Smith's  personal  comments.  Signing  himself 
I.  H.,  this  same  editor  refers  to  the  author,  "  whose 
paines  in  my  Judgement  deserueth  commendations; 
somewhat  more  was  by  him  written,  which  being  as 
I  thought  (fit  to  be  priuate)  I  would  not  aduenture 
to  make  it  publicke." 

This  long  epistle,  for  Smith  begins  his  narrative, 
"  Kinde  Sir,"  most  likely  awakened  in  him  the  pride 
of  authorship.  It  is  the  one  of  his  works  least  con 
scious  as  a  literary  production,  however  much  he 
might  strive  thereafter  to  give  easy  expression  to  his 
thought. 

He  did  not  overestimate  his  own  composition;  he 
tried  to  be  direct,  yet  he  was  continually  framing  ex 
cuses  for  this  excellent  quality  in  all  style.  His  letter 
addressed  to  Lord  Bacon,  and  accompanying  his 
manuscript  book  on  New  England  Trials,  expresses 
admiration  for  letters,  an  art  which  in  some  "  fevve 


22    THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

leaves "   could   compress  his  experience    of   nineteen 
years. 

Having1  thus  seen  that  Smith,  the  author,  was  no  less 
dear  a  title  to  him  than  Smith,  the  soldier,  let  us  turn 
to  the  spirit  of  his  work.  It  is  of  interest  only  to 
those  for  whom  historic  sources  have  a  significance; 
quaint  customs,  minute  details,  are  mingled  with  large 
wonder  and  picturesque  statements.  To  us  the  In 
dians  may  not  now  hold  a  unique  position ;  to  the  Lon 
don  reader  of  1608,  they  did. 

But  as  a  man  of  action,  John  Smith,  even  in  his 
writing,  soon  showed  the  power  of  his  word.  He 
might  describe  Powhatan,  he  might  tell  how  the  In 
dians  were  brought  to  Christianity;  there  was  in  him 
also  the  spirit  of  retort.  As  President  of  the  Virginia 
colony,  having  won  his  place  by  right  of  excellence, 
and  being  surrounded  by  faction  and  jealousy,  he 
never  hesitated  to  let  the  Treasurer  and  Council  of 
Virginia  know  wherein  they  themselves  were  deficient, 
and  how  their  narrow  and  selfish  policy  was  limiting 
the  improvement  of  conditions. 

About  the  same  time  that  this  letter  was  penned 
(1612),  Smith  sent  back  "A  Map  of  Virginia;  with 
a  Description  of  the  Country,  the  Commodities,  People, 
Government,  and  Religion."  It  must  have  been 
compiled  from  numerous  notes.  Smith's  observation 
was  alert  and  keen ;  his  interest  in  man  and  woman, 
in  details  trivial  and  large,  mark  him  as  an  analyst  of 
energetic  character ;  he  is  quaint,  he  is  humorous,  oft- 
times  tender;  he  possesses  a  discriminating  eye,  a 
poetic  manner  of  expression  that  takes  away  from  the 
dullness  of  trivial  things.  His  estimate  of  the  Indian's 
nature,  his  delineation  of  Powhatan  are  done  with  no 
lack  of  skill. 

A  close  study  of  Captain  John  Smith's  writings  is 
not  necessary  to  grasp  the  essentials  of  his  authorship. 
Should  we  read  through  Edward  Arber's  excellent 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  23 

edition  of  his  works,  we  could  not  do  more  than  claim 
for  him  what  we  have  already  done.  A  Lincolnshire 
man,  he  reached  this  country  when  he  was  but  twenty- 
four  years  of  age;  in  that  short  time  he  had  become 
an  uncommon  warrior  by  right  of  uncommon  deed. 
By  the  time  he  returned  in  1609  from  Virginia,  his 
executive  ability  had  become  so  apparent  as  to  gain 
for  him  more  than  the  mere  title  of  "  planter,"  as  he 
was  listed  on  board  ship.  What  befell  him  is  fraught 
with  romance ;  his  encounters,  his  escapes,  his  love  for 
Pocahontas,  so  appealingly  however  unhistorically 
treated  by  John  Esten  Cooke  and  by  himself  when  he 
described  her  as  the  Nonpareil  of  her  father's  country, 
have  tended  to  create  around  him  an  atmosphere  of 
fable  and  invention.  If  he  colored  his  descriptions, 
he  did  so  with  untrammeled  spirit.  We  have  claimed 
for  Smith  a  direct,  simple  expression  of  unusual 
merit;  at  times  his  choice  of  words  is  surprisingly 
apt,  indicating  a  genuine  art.  One  poem,  "  The  Sea 
Marke,"  has  been  credited  to  him.  Altogether,  he  is 
no  mean  colonial  author ;  upon  his  own  method  others 
were  to  model  theirs ;  it  was  not  a  new  form  of  litera 
ture  but  the  details  he  sought,  we  find  others  seeking; 
he  pointed  the  way,  others  followed.  Though  he  re 
turned  to  America  in  1614  and  identified  his  name 
with  the  New  England  coast,  it  is  with  the  South 
that  he  is  wholly  connected. 

Smith's  immediate  contemporaries  were  not  slow  to 
send  forth  their  own  impressions  of  their  doings  in  the 
new  world.  Worthy  of  mention  are  George  Percy's 
"  Observations,"  Newport's  (i565?-i6i7)  "Discov 
eries  in  America,"  and  Edward  Maria  Wingfield's 
"  A  Discourse  of  Virginia."  Even  John  Rolfe  (1585- 
1622),  who  put  an  end  to  Smith's  love  affair  by  mar 
rying  Pocahontas,  has  left  his  letters  and  his  scattered 
bits  of  a  "  Relation,"  while  R.  Rich's  (fl.  1610) 
"  Newes  from  Virginia "  may  be  taken  as  the  first 


24    THE   LITERATURE   OF   THE    SOUTH 

poem  to  receive  attention.  The  full  title  was  "  Nevves 
from  Virginia.  The  lost  Flocke-Triumphant.  With 
the  happy  Arriual  of  that  famous  and  Worthy  Knight 
Sr  Thomas  Gates;  and  the  well  reputed  and  valiant 
captaine  Mr.  Christopher  Newporte,  and  others,  into 
England.  With  the  manner  of  their  distresse  in  the 
Hand  of  Deuils  (otherwise  called  Bermoothawes), 
where  they  remained  42  weekes,  and  builded  two 
Pynaces,  in  which  they  returned  into  Virginia,  by  R. 
Rich,  Gent.,  one  of  the  voyage.  London.  Printed 
by  Edw.  Allde,  and  are  to  be  solde  by  John  Wright, 
at  Christ  Church  dore.  1610."  Whether  Rich  or 
Strachey  may  lay  claim  to  having  supplied  Shake 
speare  with  data  for  "  The  Tempest,"  is  of  small  con 
sequence.  The  severe  storm  and  its  treatment  by  the 
several  writers  on  board  the  Scii-I'cnturc,  indicate 
how  strongly  the  natural  surroundings,  the  apparent 
savage  wilclness  of  the  scene  affected  these  men. 

Rich  was  an  illegitimate  son  of  a  nobleman,  yet  it 
is  more  likely  he  came  to  America  for  adventure  than 
to  escape  the  stigma  of  birth.  Smith  often  com 
plained  of  the  overabundance  of  the  young  soldiers  of 
fortune  who  largely  composed  the  worthless  part  of 
the  struggling  colonies.  But  George  Percy  (1586- 
1632),  a  son  of  the  Earl  of  Northumberland,  was  dif 
ferent.  He  rapidly  rose  to  favor  in  the  new  settle 
ment,  was  perhaps  arrogant  in  his  position  as  enemy 
to  Smith,  and  was  made  Deputy-Governor  after  Smith 
was  deposed  and  until  Gates  arrived.  He  is  the 
author  of  "  A  True  Relation  of  the  Proceedings  and 
Occurrents  of  moment  which  have  happened  in  Vir 
ginia  from  the  time  Sir  Thomas  Gates  was  ship 
wrecked  upon  the  Bermudas,  1609,  until  my  Depar 
ture  out  of  the  country,  1612."  Not  only  does  he 
show  a  partisan  spirit  in  his  ill-treatment  of  Smith's 
character,  but  there  is  a  disparity  between  facts  show 
ing  him  to  be  an  unscrupulous  enemy.  He  does  not 


COLONIAL   PERIOD  25 

mention  Smith  at  all  to  blame  him  in  his  other  manu 
script,  "  Observations  gathered  out  of  a  Discourse  of 
the  Plantation  of  the  Southerne  Colonie  in  Virginia, 
1606.  Written  by  that  Honorable  Gentleman,  Mas 
ter  George  Percy."  He  observes  with  the  same  fresh 
eye  that  we  have  noted  in  Smith,  and  often  his  aston 
ishment  tends  to  assume  proportions  that  will  overdo 
the  event  or  occurrence.  Things  are  "  faire  "  to  these 
adventurers  or  they  are  "  terrible  " ;  there  is  no  inter 
mediate  compromise.  Their  choice  of  words  is  defi 
nite:  "the  Trees  full  of  Sweet  and  good  Smels."  Percy 
was  a  depicter  of  nature ;  once  landed  in  Virginia,  he 
was  quick  to  discover  "  faire  meddowes  and  goodly 
tall  trees,  with  such  fresh  waters  running  through  the 
woods,  as  I  was  almost  rauished  at  the  first  sight 
thereof."  The  savages  interest  him — their  customs, 
manners,  religions,  how  they  make  bread,  in  what 
manner  the  women  plait  their  hair  to  distinguish 
the  married  from  the  unmarried.  When  he  selects 
an  event  to  describe  at  length,  we  feel  he  has  selected 
the  one  most  picturesque,  and  at  the  same  time  most 
typical.  Curious  and  new  as  are  all  these  things  to 
him,  Percy  is  alert  for  the  variations  from  the  usual 
type.  He  expresses  surprise  at  finding  a  yellow- 
haired  Virginian  among  the  Indians;  he  possesses  a 
simple  faith  easily  satisfied  with  the  setting  up  of 
crosses  along  the  route,  and  when  famine  beset  them, 
and  the  savages  came  to  their  aid,  it  was  not  the  doing 
of  Smith  or  Pocahontas,  but  the  unseen  guiding  hand 
of  God.  Unembellished  some  may  call  these  descrip 
tions,  a  mere  inventory  of  landscape,  but  Smith's  in 
terest,  the  interest  of  all  colonial  writers  in  the 
commonplace,  is  indicative  of  how  ready  they  were 
to  gather  impressions,  and  how  thoroughly  they  im 
bibed,  as  travelers,  the  strangeness  of  their  environ 
ment.  Many  of  these  impressions  are  sketched  in 
nervously,  as  an  artist  would  map  out  a  picture,  yet 


26    THE    LITERATURE    OF    THE    SOUTH 

each  stroke  is  telling,  even  though  it  may  not  be 
finished.  Percy  paints  one  chieftain  who  came  to 
meet  them  at  the  water-side,  arriving-  "  with  all  his 
traine,  as  goodly  men  as  any  I  haue  Scene  of  Sau- 
ages  or  Christians;  the  Werowance  comming  before 
them  playing  on  a  Flute  made  of  a  Reed,  with  a  Crown 
of  Deares  hair  colloured  red,  in  fashion  of  a  Rose 
fastened  about  his  knot  of  haire,  and  a  great  Plate 
of  Copper  on  the  other  Side  of  his  head,  with  two 
long  Feathers  in  fashion  of  a  paire  of  Homes  placed 
in  the  midst  of  his  Crowne.  .  .  .  He  entertained 
vs  in  so  modest  a  proud  fashion,  as  though  he  had 
beene  a  Prince  of  ciuill  gouernment.  .  .  ." 

That  Percy  was  indebted  to  Smith  is  evident  from 
the  fact  that  his  book  contains  the  Virginia  map  and 
other  emendations.  Purchas,  in  his  wonderful  source 
compilation,  ends  this  account  with  an  entry  in  Sep 
tember,  1607;  "the  rest  is  omitted,"  he  says,  "being 
more  fully  set  downe  in  Captain  Smith's  Relations." 

There  is  much  that  might  be  laid  to  the  credit  of 
William  Strachey  (fl.  1609-18)  to  stamp  him  as 
more  than  an  ordinary  chronicler  of  events.  His 
account  of  the  storm-tossed  Sea-Venture,  in  the 
form  of  a  letter,  "  A  true  Reportery  of  the  wrack 
and  redemption  of  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  Knight,  upon 
and  from  the  Islands  of  the  Bermudas,  his  coming 
to  Virginia,  and  the  estate  of  that  colony,  then  and 
after  under  the  government  of  the  Lord  La  Ware," 
has  already  been  mentioned  in  connection  with  that 
of  Rich ;  it  contains  motion,  increasing  force,  and  a 
certain  beauty  of  gloom  that  is  rare  in  this  early 
period.  As  an  eye-witness,  a  participator,  he  was 
impelled  to  handle  the  event  with  a  graphic  and  sym 
pathetic  surety.  It  may  be,  too,  that  he  possessed 
a  certain  amount  of  culture  that  rose  to  the  occasion 
of  depicting  a  perilous  moment  with  pathos  and 
breathless  suspense. 


COLONIAL   PERIOD  27 

For  "  Four  and  twenty  hours,"  runs  the  descrip 
tion,  "the  storm,  in  a  restless  tumult,  had  blown  so 
exceedingly,  as  we  could  not  apprehend  in  our  imag 
inations  any  possibility  of  greater  violence,  yet  did 
we  find  it,  not  only  more  terrible,  but  more  constant, 
fury  added  to  fury,  and  one  storm  urging  a  second, 
more  outrageous  than  the  former,  whether  it  so 
wrought  upon  our  fears,  or  indeed  met  with  new 
forces.  Sometimes  strikes  in  our  ship  amongst  women, 
and  passengers  not  used  to  such  hurly  and  discomforts, 
made  us  look  one  upon  the  other  with  troubled  hearts, 
and  panting  bosoms,  our  clamors  drowned  in  the 
winds,  and  the  winds  in  thunder." 

Having  arrived  at  Jamestown,  Strachey,  in  his 
official  capacity  as  first  secretary  of  the  colony,  was 
active  with  his  pen.  Not  only  did  he  write  several 
accounts  of  the  adventures  of  De  la  Warre  and  Gates, 
which  are  thought  to  have  served  Sir  Edwin  Sandys 
for  his  own  written  view  of  a  colony  he  never  visited, 
but  likewise  there  may  be  classed  as  a  state  document, 
"  For  the  colony  in  Virginia  Britannia,  Lavves  Diuine, 
Morall  and  Martiall,"  which  Strachey  dedicated  to 
the  Lords  of  the  Councell  of  Virginia.  His  chief  de 
sire  in  this  seems  to  have  been  to  point  a  way  for 
"  such  young  souldiers  in  the  Colony  who  are  desirous 
to  learne  and  performe  their  duties."  He  may  have 
shown  some  of  his  cunning  and  wisdom  in  believing 
that  probably  his  manuscript  would  be  read  by  those 
in  authority  who  should  know  the  truth.  The  duties, 
civil,  military,  and  religious,  are  enumerated;  laws  to 
be  read  by  the  captain  before  his  men;  prayers  to  be 
delivered  to  the  guards  of  the  watch ;  the  thirty-seven 
orders  to  be  pondered  over  by  the  minister  every  Sab 
bath,  in  default  of  which  he  will  be  deprived  for  seven 
days  of  his  calling.  Such  writing,  with  its  legal  bear 
ing,  is  of  more  interest  to  the  historian  than  to  the 
critic  of  letters. 


28    THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

Strachey  was  back  in  England  by  the  time  this  com 
pilation  was  published  in  1612,  and  he  appears  to  have 
been  busy  editing  Smith's  "  Map  of  Virginia,"  as  well 
as  planning  a  book  of  his  own.  His  interests  were 
now  largely  centered  in  the  colony,  though  he  never 
returned.  The  entire  scope  of  his  thoroughly  dig 
nified  treatise  is:  "  The  History  of  Travaile  into  Vir 
ginia  Britannia;  expressing  the  Cosmographie  and 
Comodities  of  the  Country,  togither  with  the  man 
ners  and  Customes  of  the  People.  Gathered  and  ob 
served  as  well  by  those  who  went  first  thither  as  col 
lected  by  William  Strachey,  Gent,  the  first  Secretary 
of  the  Colony."  The  manuscript,  as  far  as  he  pro 
gressed  with  it,  was  not  published  until  the  Hakluyt 
Society  issued  it  in  1849. 

Smith  and  Strachey  were  associated  in  the  ex 
pedition  up  the  Chesapeake;  hence  many  things  in 
common  came  under  their  observation,  and  the  fact 
that  Strachey  was  a  reader  of  Smith's  writings  is 
sufficient  evidence  that  he  used  Smith  as  a  chief 
source. 

The  historical  method  employed  by  Strachey  denotes 
forethought  and  some  elementary  research.  His  rea 
soning  arises  from  the  popular  misconceptions  of  the 
day,  but  it  is  not  so  wholly  at  variance  with  the  scho 
lasticism  of  the  time  as  to  challenge  his  explanation 
of  the  origin  of  Indians,  springing  from  the  family 
of  Cham.  If,  on  the  one  hand  he  is  willing  to  accept 
that  theory,  on  the  other  he  is  puzzled  by  a  practical 
doubt  as  to  how  the  vagabond  race  of  Cham  ever  did 
land  in  the  new  world,  without  "  shipping,  and  means 
to  tempt  the  sea."  His  measure  of  justice  when  de 
scribing  the  savages  is  full  to  overflowing,  for  he 
recognizes  the  white  man's  indiscretions  and  follies, 
and,  on  his  part,  there  is  a  willingness  to  emphasize 
the  noble  qualities  of  the  red  man.  The  analysis  of 
Indian  subtlety,  the  realism  displayed  in  his  descrip- 


COLONIAL   PERIOD  29 

tions  of  Indian  punishment,  the  discrimination  be 
tween  what  they  foster  as  custom  and  what  is  in 
grained  as  Indian  nature,  are  couched  in  phrases  of 
unusual  clearness  and  distinction.  Historians  to-day, 
in  search  for  graphic  details  of  religious  rites,  tribal 
theories  as  to  the  "  ymmortality  of  the  sowle,"  as  to 
dancing  and  singing,  regard  these  documents  in  the 
light  of  stenographic  reports  from  an  eye-witness. 
Strachey  is  aesthetically  inclined;  besides  being  ana 
lytic,  he  is  speculative.  He  prefers  men  to  natural 
scenery ;  his  impression  of  Powhatan,  the  "  goodly  old 
man,  not  yet  shrincking,  though  well  beaten  with 
many  cold  and  stormye  winters,"  is  strong  in  outline. 
He  brings  to  his  work  a  degree  of  musical  apprecia 
tion  where  he  describes  the  savage  singing: 

"  They  have  base,  tenor,  counter  tenor,  mean  and 
treble;  these  myngled  with  their  voices,  sometymes 
twenty  or  thirty  togither,  make  such  a  terrible  howl 
ing  as  would  rather  affright  then  give  pleasure  to 
any  man.  They  have  likewise  their  errotica  carmina, 
or  amorous  dittyes." 

This  passage  is  based  on  no  mere  literal  record; 
it  is  fraught  with  a  personal  tinge  of  humor,  observa 
tion,  and  understanding.  The  author  was  a  man  of 
learning,  who  attempted  to  combine  description  with 
correlation,  for  though  early  forms  of  literature 
abound  in  similes  and  metaphors,  the  contrast  of 
theories  does  not  indicate  an  elemental  intellect.  The 
one  arises  from  a  close  contact  with  nature ;  the  other 
founds  itself  upon  education.  We  are  not  surprised 
then  to  read  into  Strachey's  history  something  of  the 
author's  culture. 

He  writes  that  the  Indians  "  suppose  that  the  com 
mon  people  shall  not  live  after  death ;  but  they  thinck 
that  their  weroances  and  priests,  indeed,  whom  they 
esteem  half  quioughcosughes,  when  their  bodyes  are 
laied  in  the  earth,  that  that  which  is  within  shall  goe 


30    THE    LITERATURE    OF    THE    SOUTH 

beyond  the  mountaynes,  and  travell  as  farr  as  where 
the  sun  setts  into  most  pleasant  fields,  growndes,  and 
pastures,  where  yt  shall  doe  no  labour  .  .  .  till 
that  waxe  old  there,  as  the  body  did  on  earth,  and 
then  yt  shall  dissolve  and  die,  and  come  into  a 
woman's  womb  again,  and  so  be  a  new  borne  unto 
the  world;  not  unlike  the  heathen  Pythagoras  his 
opinyon,  and  fable  of  metempsychosis;  nor  is  this 
opinion  more  ridiculous  or  savage  then  was  the  Epi 
cures." 

Although  he  did  not  complete  this  work,  Strachey 
undertook  to  write  it  in  a  truly  creditable  manner.  He 
possessed  much  of  the  data  necessary,  to  which  he 
added  his  own  personal  investigation.  He  did  not 
remain  in  the  colony,  but  from  a  distance,  perhaps, 
he  was  better  able  to  balance  his  data  and  to  see 
events  in  proper  proportions;  he  regarded  his  duties 
seriously  and  his  interest  was  something  more  than 
external. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  a  chronicle  of  colonial  names 
will  do  much  more  than  convince  one  that  there  was 
not  as  significant  a  literature  in  the  South  as  in 
\c\v  England,  because  of  the  very  fact  that  there 
was  no  dominant  meeting-house  and  because  the 
population  segregated  rather  than  congregated.  But 
the  value  of  recollecting  the  name  of  the  Rev.  Alex 
ander  Whitaker  (1585-1613)  rests  in  the  emphasis 
his  endeavors  place  on  the  existence  of  a  strong  Puri 
tan  feeling  in  the  South — not  perhaps  as  ascetic  as  in 
the  North,  but  equally  as  zealous.  In  him  we  con 
template  what  Professor  Tyler  claimed  to  be  "a  man 
of  apostolic  sorrow,"  one  who,  in  the  fervor  of  his 
spiritual  desire,  left  a  comfortable  living  to  do  mis 
sionary  work  in  Virginia.  He  was  the  son  of  a 
famous  father — William  Whitaker,  master  of  St. 
John's  College,  Oxford,  and  himself  took  a  degree. 
It  is  claimed  that  Strachey's  history  turned  his  mind 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  31 

toward  the  new  land,  but  certain  it  is  that  his  deter 
mination  was  made  up  when,  in  1611,  Sir  Thomas 
Dale  started  for  Virginia.  The  "  Good  News  from 
Virginia,"  when  it  was  published  in  1613,  carried  an 
"Epistle  Dedicatory"  by  Whitaker's  friend,  'Cra- 
shawe,  who  in  a  few  words  epitomized  this  "  apostolic 
impulse" ;  he  "  did  voluntarily  leave  his  warm  nest," 
so  runs  the  text,  "and  to  the  wonder  of  his  kindred 
and  amazement  of  them  that  knew  him,  undertook 
this  .  .  .  heroical  resolution  to  go  to  Virginia,  and 
help  to  bear  the  name  of  God  unto  the  heathen." 

Settled  in  the  "  City  of  Henrico,"  Whitaker,  during 
his  sojourn  of  six  years,  among  his  many  duties 
brought  Pocahontas  to  salvation  through  conversion. 
What  he  wrote  was  not  exactly  literature;  it  was  a 
cross  between  sermonic  exhortation,  "  pithy  and 
godly  "  claims  Crashawe,  and  the  usual  descriptions 
without,  as  Tyler  claims,  "  any  shining  superiorities  in 
thought  or  style." 

Whatever  writing  Whitaker  did  was  framed  in 
the  missionary  tone;  it  stretched  beyond  the  limits 
of  text,  although  permeated  with  unswerving  spiritual 
intention  which  was  his  by  inheritance.  Yet  there  was 
an  added  tone  of  national  appeal  to  Englishmen, 
couched  in  such  words  as  "  Let  the  miserable  condition 
of  these  naked  slaves  of  the  devil  move  you  to  com 
passion  toward  them."  Whitaker's  belief  was  strong; 
he  was  firm  in  his  surety  that  in  him  was  the  perfect 
minister,  by  right  of  his  knowledge  of  scriptural  doc 
trine.  He  was  exacting  toward  his  meager  congrega 
tion.  "  Every  Sabbath  day,"  he  wrote  to  a  friend, 
"  we  preach  in  the  forenoon  and  catechize  in  the  after 
noon.  Every  Saturday,  at  night,  I  exercise  in  Sir 
Thomas  Dale's  house." 

Whitaker  was  an  unceasing  worker,  a  fearless  yet 
simple  man.  He  was  not  so  tied  to  custom  as  to 
adhere  to  the  surplice  in  the  colony;  he  was  exacting 


32     THE    LITERATURE   OF    THE    SOUTH 

in  the  spirit,  and  withal  a  loving,  gentle  friend.  His 
letters  breathe  such  a  tone. 

Interest  in  John  Pory  (i57O?-i635)  centers 
chiefly  in  the  epistolatory  character  of  his  writings. 
He  was  an  adventurer  seeking  impressions,  but  his  na 
ture  was  not  one  long  to  be  kept  away  from  civiliza 
tion;  we  find  him  often  bemoaning  the  state  of  his 
loneliness,  and  yet  he  was  by  no  means  lethargic. 
With  a  B.  A.  and  a  M.  A.  degree  from  Cambridge  and 
Oxford,  he  became  a  pupil  of  Hakluyt,  and  from  him 
received  encouragement  to  translate  from  the  Arabic 
and  Italian,  a  History  of  Africa,  written  by  John  Leo 
Moore.  He  was  held  in  high  esteem  by  Hakluyt, 
who  referred  to  him  as  "  my  very  honest,  industrious 
and  learned  friend  " ;  he  was  acquainted  with  the  poet 
Donne,  and  with  Sir  Robert  Cotton.  Unfortunately 
for  his  scholarship,  he  was  possessed  of  a  conviviality 
that  well  nigh  proved  his  ruin.  Soon  after  leaving 
Oxford,  Pory,  already  talked  of  in  many  channels  for 
his  translated  history,  won  a  seat  in  Parliament,  and 
gained  the  favor  of  the  King,  who  used  him  in  diplo 
matic  negotiations.  He  had  seen  something  of  the 
world,  trying  with  much  ingenuity  to  introduce  a  silk- 
loom  stocking  weave  into  England,  an  idea  gained 
while  traveling  through  France  and  the  Low  Coun 
tries.  He  was  a  restive  person,  not  content  to  remain 
in  a  place  for  any  length  of  time,  and  Parliament  soon 
gave  him  leave  to  travel  for  three  years.  It  maybe 
was  this  fitful  humor  which  lost  him  the  secretary 
ship  to  Virginia  at  the  time  the  poet  Donne  tried  for 
it  and  failed.  Had  the  latter  come  over,  historians  in 
their  zealousness  might  have  regarded  him  as  an 
American  writer.  Such  an  attitude  is  humorous,  as 
much  so,  we  shall  see,  as  for  us  to  claim  Sandys 
and  his  poetical  ventures. 

Pory  hastened  to  Ireland,  then  turned  to  Paris;  by 
1613  he  was  going  from  Turin  to  Venice,  and  then 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  33 

received  a  halt  at  Constantinople,  where  he  remained 
until  1616.  It  would  seem  that  the  adventurer  fell 
into  financial  straits,  and  was  extricated  therefrom  by 
Sir  Dudley  Carleton;  he  traveled  with  the  latter  in 
Zealand,  and  though  racked  with  the  weakness  of 
drink,  he  appears  to  have  been  endowed  with  the 
easy  good-nature  of  a  courtier. 

By  the  end  of  1618,  Pory  sailed  to  Virginia  as  sec 
retary  to  Yeardley.  The  colony  had  been  in  peril 
through  the  evil  doings  of  Argall.  Naturally,  with 
his  parliamentary  experience,  Pory  was  soon  required 
in  the  deliberations  of  the  Council,  and  it  was  this 
same  advantage  which  made  him  by  1621  Speaker 
of  the  General  Assembly.  When  Yeardley  was  suc 
ceeded  by  Wyatt,  in  1621,  the  secretary  lost  his  post 
and  therefore  returned  to  England.  His  life  from 
this  time  became  picturesque;  he  was  soon  on  the 
road,  and  by  the  summer  of  1622,  with  a  Captain 
Jones,  reputed  to  have  once  commanded  the  May- 
ftou.'er,  he  sailed  across  seas  to  investigate  all  har 
bors  between  Plymouth  and  Virginia.  While  in  the 
former  place,  he  became  friendly  with  Bradford  dur- 
ink  the  short  time  he  remained  North.  No  sooner 
upon  the  highway,  than  he  fell  into  the  hands  of  some 
Portuguese  who  would  thereupon  have  hanged  him 
for  a  Protestant  knave  if  a  royal  marriage  involving 
Spanish  and  English  interests  had  not  been  at  issue. 
In  the  end,  Pory  felt  himself  ill  treated  by  the  Lon 
don  company,  and  charges  of  various  kinds  were 
brought  against  him.  By  1624,  he  had  settled  down 
in  London. 

Many  of  Pory's  letters  are  extant;  they  are  col 
ored  largely  by  his  temperament;  no  doubt,  the  one 
addressed  to  his  friend,  Sir  Dudley  Carleton,  is  as 
typical  as  any  other.  He  has  great  faith  in  colonial 
possibilities ;  in  spite  of  the  Spaniards  and  the  Indians, 
he  prophesies  vast  growth  for  the  new  estate. 


34     THE   LITERATURE    OF    THE   SOUTH 

Having  come  from  the  civilized  world,  to  a  coun 
try  uncouth,  here  was  a  colonist  who  found  the  tran 
sition  hardly  bearable.  Aloof  from  the  general  cur 
rent  of  life,  surrounded  mostly  by  ignorance,  for  the 
vessels  were  laden  with  those  who  lacked  common 
sense,  he  forced  himself  to  become  indifferent,  and 
turned  to  his  pen  and  a  good  book  for  consolation; 
thus  he  found  himself  his  best  company.  Is  it  so 
strange  that  endearment  should  be  the  dominant  note 
in  this  letter  destined  to  one  in  the  land  of  life?  Is 
is  not  almost  a  cry  in  the  wilderness  that  escapes  from 
Pory  when  he  ends  by  asking  for  pamphlets  and  with 
a  desire  to  see  his  lordship  soon  again? 

The  manner  in  which  environment  played  upon  the 
nature  of  the  colonist,  has  not  as  yet  affected  the 
thought  of  the  colonial  writer  any  more  than  it  would 
any  stranger  in  a  strange  land.  So  that  overcareful- 
ness  in  claiming  colonial  writing  as  native  product 
is  the  wisest  course.  Yet  we  are  prone  to  turn  to 
George  Sandys  (1577-1644)  as  our  first  professional 
literary  man,  who  in  the  midst  of  primeval  forests  sat 
him  down  to  cast  into  artistic  mold,  expression  for 
the  sake  of  its  own  beauty.  Sandys  had  come  from 
a  line  of  literary  people,  all  of  them  alike  known  for 
their  studiousness  and  for  their  prominence  in  affairs. 
Edwin  Sandys,  Archbishop  of  York,  was  noted  for 
ln>  irritable  disposition,  his  duplicity  in  the  murder 
of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  and  his  skill  in  the  trans 
lation  of  the  Bishop's  Bible;  his  second  son,  Edwin, 
was  treasurer  of  Virginia,  but  never  came  to  this 
country.  Sufficient  to  note  that  after  George  left 
Oxford,  the  first  we  hear  of  him  is  on  his  travels 
East  in  T^TO;  through  influence,  he  had  gained  him 
friends  of  enviable  rank. 

Sandys   was  a   man   of   scliolarlv   attainments;   he 

spoke  many  Inn-  IM-  had   spiritual   fee-ling  and 

ic  grace;  he  loved  adventure,  and  what  he  had 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  35 

done  and  seen  fired  his  fancy.  When,  in  1606,  the 
Charter  for  the  Colony  in  Virginia  was  obtained,  the 
Sandys  family  turned  their  eyes  westward.  Sir  Edwin 
became  Treasurer  of  the  Corporation.  By  1621,  when 
Wyatt  was  detailed  as  Governor,  and  sailed  with  his 
official  household,  his  uncle  George  followed  him  as 
Treasurer.  Little  is  said  of  the  administration  of  his 
duties;  everything  is  lost  in  the  ideal  picture  of  this 
courtier,  this  colonist,  escaping  from  his  labors  to 
finish  his  translation  of  Ovid's  "  Metamorphoses." 
Stith,  the  later  historian,  marveled  that  such  creation 
could  be  consummated  in  so  wild  a  land.  The  poet 
himself,  in  his  dedication  to  Charles,  claims  that  his 
lines  "  sprung  from  the  stock  of  the  ancient  Romans, 
but  bred  in  the  New-World,  of  the  rudeness  of  which 
it  cannot  but  participate." 

So  popular  did  his  version  become  that  by  1690 
it  had  reached  its  eighth  edition,  and  had  won  the 
praise  of  all  his  literary  contemporaries.  When 
Sandys  returned  to  England  in  162$  or  1626,  honors 
were  bestowed  upon  him  and  he  was  made  a  Gentle 
man  of  his  Majesty's  Privy  Chamber.  He  continued 
to  dedicate  his  work  to  the  King,  and  inheriting  some 
of  the  inclination  of  his  father,  the  Archbishop,  he 
paraphrased  the  Psalms  in  1636,  published  his  five- 
act  tragedy,  "  Christ's  Passion,"  in  1640,  and  the 
"Song  of  Solomon"  in  1641.  Having  now  reached 
an  age  when  retirement  was  most  fitting,  the  poet 
went  to  dwell  with  his  niece,  Margaret,  whose  hus 
band,  Sir  Francis  Wyatt,  was  the  grandson  of  Thomas 
Wyatt,  of  literary  fame.  There  he  abandoned  him 
self  wholly  to  contemplation  and  poetry,  and  died  on 
March  4,  1644. 

There  is  little  that  might  be  called  original  in  the 
productions  of  George  Sandys,  although  his  trans 
lations  and  paraphrases  show  a  frank  desire  to  depart 
from  the  usual  paths  of  servility  and  literalness.  Cer- 


36    THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

tainly  they  were  admired  by  many  generations,  though 
not  sufficiently  to  warrant  the  "  Metamorphoses  "  be 
ing  printed  in  America.  That  Sandys  must  have  writ 
ten  independent  of  conventions  is  evident  by  the  fact 
that  he  did  not  attempt  to  set  his  metres  to  the  meas 
ure  of  church  music.  A  man  of  pious  inclination,  he 
was  loved  and  lauded  in  countless  verse.  Except  for 
the  rare  example  of  a  writer  in  the  backwoods  devot 
ing  himself  to  literature,  Sandys  may  hardly  be  claimed 
as  a  Southerner.  But  he  was  so  regarded  by  his  asso 
ciates. 

Among  the  adventurous  writers  who  might  be 
named  along  with  Richard  Rolfe,  is  Col.  Henry  Nor 
wood,  who,  a  veritable  soldier  of  fortune,  set  sail 
for  America  on  September  23,  1649,  with  the  strong 
belief  that  it  was  somewhat  incumbent  upon  him, 
inasmuch  as  he  was  "  nearly  related "  to  Sir  Wil 
liam  Berkeley.  His  narration  of  "  A  Voyage  to  Vir 
ginia  "  is  crisp  with  color  and  adventure ;  it  is  a  chron 
icle  with  strong  fictional  interest,  being  told  with 
some  spirit  and  with  some  eye  for  the  melodramatic 
occurrences  on  the  trip.  Indeed,  the  narrative  would 
please  many  a  boy  of  to-day ;  there  is  a  story  of  heroic 
proportions,  demanding  endurance,  bravery,  and  sacri 
fices  as  strong  as  one  finds  in  the  usual  books  of  ad 
venture. 

Norwood  was  a  hearty  sailor,  one  to  stare  death  in 
the  face,  to  cope  with  starvation,  to  feel  the  pictur- 
esqueness  of  storm  and  moonlight.  His  descriptions 
are  vivid,  and  the  day  and  night  aboard  his  vessel 
gave  him  a  stock  of  dangers  upon  which  he  was  not 
loath  to  discant.  He  approached  hardship  with  a 
fund  of  natural  humor  that  is  fair  indication  of  his 
true  sportsman's  spirit.  If  he  thirsted,  his  "  dreams 
\vcre  all  of  cellars,  and  taps  running  down  my  throat, 
which  made  my  waking  much  the  worse  by  that  tan 
talizing  fancy." 


COLONIAL   PERIOD  37 

Most  of  these  adventurous  experiences  were  set 
down  from  memory;  therefore,  it  is  necessary  to  dis 
count  some  of  the  enthusiasm,  one  might  almost  claim 
zest,  with  which  the  romantic  and  gruesome  details 
were  described.  To  shoot  fowl  by  moonlight  is  a 
pretty  idea,  but  to  feed  on  dead  companions  through 
the  dire  straits  into  which  they  fell  is  another  thing. 
Norwood  is  a  glib  narrator.  He  depicts  the  Indians 
with  a  touch  lighter  than  that  of  the  purposeful  chron 
icler;  therefore,  wherever  he  sketches  the  person  of 
an  Indian  king,  queen  or  princess,  his  pencil  is  deft 
in  the  depiction,  based  on  more  than  mere  observa 
tion  and  evidence  of  a  warm  appreciation  of  the  child 
ish  humor  to  be  found  in  the  Indian  character.  Nor 
wood  is  fresh  and  that  is  a  characteristic  not  easily 
to  be  discounted. 

For  the  first  time,  we  now  come  to  a  change  in 
locality,  and  an  alteration  in  the  outlook  of  'the 
writer.  As  a  Marylander,  and  as  a  Catholic  priest, 
the  view-point  shifts  in  the  case  of  Father  Andrew 
White  (1579-1656),  who  was  sent  to  the  New  World 
in  1633.  As  a  missionary,  he  received  banish 
ment  from  England  in  1606,  having  suffered  im 
prisonment  and  insult.  He  was  a  man  of  deep  learn 
ing,  having  been  professor  of  Scriptures,  dogmatic 
theology,  Hebrew,  and  Greek  at  various  places  from 
Valladolid  and  Seville  to  Liege.  Once  arrived  in  the 
Maryland  colony,  his  mission  was  soon  begun,  and 
he  remained  eleven  years,  when  once  more  he  was 
subjected  to  indignity,  and  forced  back  to  England, 
where  he  was  just  saved  from  death,  but  was  sen 
tenced  to  banishment  for  life.  The  remainder  of  his 
days  was  spent  in  diverse  wanderings,  and  minor 
duties,  such  as  chaplain  to  a  family  of  some  wealth. 
His  work  among  the  Indians  in  America  was  earnest 
and  persistent ;  alive  to  the  difficult  problem  of  appeal 
ing  to  them,  of  continuing  in  direct  intercourse  with 


38     THE    LITERATURE    OF    THE    SOUTH 

them,  he  set  to  work  mastering  their  language.  There 
is  a  picture  in  Shea's  "  History  of  the  Catholic  Church 
in  the  United  States/'  which  portrays  White  in  the  act 
of  baptizing  the  natives. 

White's  book  is  written  in  the  spirit  of  a  report; 
it  bears  the  title,  "A  Relation  of  the  Colony  of  the 
Lord  Baron  of  Baltimore,  in  Maryland,  near  Virginia ; 
a  Narrative  of  the  Voyage  to  Maryland,  by  Father 
Andrew  White.  And  Sundry  reports,  from  Fathers 
Andrew  White,  John  Altham,  John  Brock,  and  other 
Jesuit  Fathers  of  the  Colony,  to  the  Superior  General 
at  Rome." 

Knowing  upon  what  basis  the  colony  was  founded, 
and  understanding  the  full  significance  of  the  priest's 
calling,  it  is  readily  determined  how  far  White  would 
look  in  his  investigations ;  his  is  not  a  secular  view  of 
colony  planting:  the  grain  and  the  fruit  trees  are  to 
spring  from  the  seeds  of  the  Gospel.  Nature  may  be 
extravagant  in  her  massiveness  and  density,  yet  the 
light  of  God  must  penetrate  the  darkness.  On  the  voy 
age  over,  prayers  assuage  the  waves ;  the  deck  becomes 
the  beginning  of  a  Catholic  stronghold  which  was  to 
bring  salvation  to  a  savage  land.  Protestant  Vir 
ginia  might  look  askance  and  unfavorably  at  the  new 
colony,  it  mattered  not,  for  faith  was  the  mastering 
passion.  In  1634,  places  in  the  newly  assigned  terri 
tory  were  receiving  the  sanctified  names  of  St.  Gregory 
and  St.  Michael.  As  to  the  rivers,  the  Thames  seemed 
a  mere  rivulet.  Father  White,  with  face  to  the  shore, 
had  wafted  to  him  the  freshness  of  the  forest.  "  It  is 
not  rendered  impure  by  marshes,"  he  writes,  "but  on 
each  bank  of  solid  earth  rise  beautiful  groves  of  trees, 
not  choked  up  with  an  undergrowth  of  brambles  and 
bushes,  but  as  if  laid  out  by  the  hand,  in  a  manner  so 
open,  that  you  might  freely  drive  a  four-horse  chariot 
in  the  midst  of  the  trees." 

The  picturesque  writer  is  primarily  a  dogmatic  ob- 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  39 

server;  faith  was  so  far  uppermost  in  mind,  that 
nought  could  withstay  its  influence,  its  irresistible 
power.  A  snake  bite  was  cured  by  divine  grace; 
dreams  came  to  his  aid  in  converting  to  Catholicism. 
These  colonists  mistrusted  Protestant  interpreters  who 
were  detailed  to  find  out  the  religious  views  of  the 
Indians.  Yet  despite  this  certain  narrowness,  White's 
narrative  is  manly  and  sincere  in  its  object.  He  was 
not  an  Englishman  so  much  as  a  Catholic;  he  would 
better  conditions  in  America,  not  for  the  sake  of  per 
sonal  pride,  but  for  the  glory  of  Rome  and  the  Pope. 

The  next  figure  in  our  literary  survey  possesses 
something  of  a  cosmopolitan  character.  John  Ham 
mond  arrived  in  Virginia  in  1635,  and  after  a  resi 
dence  of  nineteen  years,  crossed  over  to  Maryland 
where  he  remained  for  two  years,  deep  in  his  investi 
gations  of  conditions.  When,  in  1656,  he  found  him 
self  once  again  in  England,  and  realized  in  what  a 
quandary  people  were  who,  about  to  sail  for  America, 
were  torn  between  doubt  and  hope  by  conflicting  re 
ports,  he  set  himself  the  task  of  stating  the  true  condi 
tions.  The  necessity  of  the  work  and  the  recent- 
ness  of  his  experience  account  for  the  rapidity  with 
which  the  book  was  completed.  The  same  year  of  his 
return,  there  was  published  "  Leah  and  Rachel ;  or, 
The  Two  Fruitfull  Sisters  Virginia  and  Mary-Land: 
Their  Present  Condition,  Impartially  stated  and  re 
lated  With  A  Removall  of  such  Imputations  as  are 
scandalously  cast  on  those  Countries,  whereby  many 
deceived  Souls,  chose  rather  to  Beg,  Steal,  rot  in 
Prison,  and  come  to  Shamefull  deaths,  then  to  better 
their  being  by  going  thither,  wherein  is  plenty  of  all 
things  necessary  for  Humane  subsistance.  By  John 
Hammond.  .  .  .  London.  Printed  by  T.  Mabb,  and 
are  to  be  sold  by  Nich.  Bourn,  neer  the  Royall  Ex 
change.'* 

Its  very  scope  suggests  something  unusual  in  the 


40    THE    LITERATURE  OF   THE    SOUTH 

nature  of  its  purpose.  The  tone  is  native,  based  on 
satisfaction  and  a  love  of  the  new  home.  It  is  colonial 
and  its  significance  lies  in  the  youthful  challenge  which 
might  be  classed  as  American.  Upon  reading  a  few 
pages,  Hammond  will  be  recognized  as  a  writer  on  the 
aggressive  as  well  as  on  the  defensive ;  his  main  object 
is  to  infuse  enthusiasm  without  concealing  facts. 

Hammond's  intention  was  to  be  practical,  not 
theoretical.  He  has  watched  for  himself,  and  he  is 
safe  to  follow  in  his  advice.  He  has  seen  indentured 
servants  sign  themselves  thoughtlessly  into  the  hands 
of  Merchant  and  Mariner,  and  thus  shackled,  cross 
the  seas  to  an  unknown  Master.  His  voice  is  strong 
for  their  sakes  in  his  warning  them  to  know  somewhat 
of  their  destination,  to  attend  carefully  to  their  con 
tracts,  and  once  settled  in  these  points,  to  remain  un 
daunted,  even  though  at  first  all  high  hopes  are  dashed 
to  pieces.  America  has  found  a  champion  in  Ham 
mond  ;  he  is  much  less  an  Englishman,  and  much  more 
a  native.  He  is  certain  in  his  mind  that  he  prefers 
Virginia  to  London.  How  could  any  one  ever  desire 
to  live  in  England,  he  suggests,  even  though  he  own 
landed  estates?  For  the  husbandmen  or  the  hands- 
craftmen  there  are  worse  off  than  the  commonest 
laborer  in  the  colony.  Hammond  would  have  all  re 
ports  disbelieved  that  picture  the  workman  without 
recreation,  with  no  bed  but  a  couple  of  bare  boards. 
There  is  plenty  for  the  industrious;  and  the  stranger 
soon  finds  friends  where  hospitality  is  the  rule  rather 
than  the  exception. 

And  so,  he  passes  to  a  new  land  which  is  unknown 
simply  because  overclouded  by  the  greatness  of  Vir 
ginia.  "  I  casting  my  eye  on  Mary-land  the  younger, 
grew  inamoured  on  her  beauty,  resolving  like  Jacob 
when  he  had  first  served  for  Leah,  to  begin  a  fresh 
service  for  Rachel." 

Hammond's  tone  is  serious  throughout;  he  is  plain 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  41 

and  vigorous,  enthusiastic  but  not  given  to  false  flat 
tery;  nor  has  he  much  confidence  in  himself  as  a 
writer.  His  name  is  affixed  because  he  wishes  his 
criticisms  to  have  a  sponsor,  in  case  they  be  considered 
libels.  He  knows  he  has  enemies  in  England,  and 
since  the  Claiborne  affair,  that  "  pestilent  enemie,"  he 
can  expect  nought  from  Virginia.  He  had  to  flee 
for  his  life,  condemned  to  die  "  by  the  rebells  of  the 
Bay."  This  production  must  not  be  taken  as  a  piece 
of  literature;  but  it  is  removed  from  that  class  of 
writing  termed  report,  by  the  impulse  which  prompted 
Hammond  to  produce  it.  The  motive  shows  an  ad 
vance  over  all  others  so  far  mentioned  as  being  classed 
among  colonial  writers.  It  can  but  be  regarded  as  an 
expression  which  shifts  its  ground  from  a  simple  rec 
ord  to  a  personal  opinion. 

The  serving  people  thus  described  and  championed 
by  Hammond,  had  another  supporter  in  one  who  be 
longed  to  their  class,  and  who  follows  and  corrob 
orates  much  outlined  in  "  Leah  and  Rachel." 
George  Alsop  (fl.  1638)  has  been  called  a  roisterer  of 
the  Restoration  period;  he  was  a  staunch  opponent  to 
Cromwell;  he  was  also  one  to  sing  in  verse  of  the 
Stuarts'  return  to  the  throne.  But  his  royalist  habits 
no  doubt  drove  him  from  England  when  the  Round 
heads  gained  the  ascendency.  Perhaps  it  was  then 
that  his  servitude  began  when,  about  1658,  he  set  sail 
for  America  and  most  likely  attached  himself  on  board 
ship  to  his  future  master,  bound  for  Maryland.  Since 
he  appears  to  have  been  fortunate  in  his  attachment, 
we  have  some  cause  to  discount  part  of  his  optimism 
regarding  apprenticeship.  We  may  rely  on  his  de 
scription  of  the  redemption  system,  however,  which 
enters  fully  into  the  terms  and  gives  the  exact  form 
of  procedure  commonly  followed.  Like  Hammond's 
book,  this  new  one  was  framed  to  encourage  emigra 
tion,  to  dispel  the  evil  reports  about  untrue  conditions. 


42    THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

It  is  a  propagandist  pamphlet,  couched  in  broad,  plain, 
coarse  English,  yet  given  at  times  to  fall  into  height 
ened  language  far  and  away  above  the  heads  of  those 
to  whom  his  words  were  addressed.  It  is  an  admix 
ture  of  prose  and  verse  which,  when  it  appeared  in 
1665  (?),  was  awarded  praise  from  all  who  pro 
claimed  the  author  no  mean  manipulator  of  "  plain, 
yet  pithy  and  concise  description." 

The  pages  were  addressed  to  Lord  Baltimore:  they 
were  further  introduced  by  forewords  to  all  merchant 
adventurers,  with  a  preface  to  the  Reader,  and  one  to 
the  book  attached.  All  this  preamble  is  served  up  in 
a  jocular  vein,  well  nigh  witty  in  its  familiarity. 
"  This  dish  of  Discourse  was  intended  for  you  at 
first,"  he  proclaims  to  the  aforementioned  adventurers, 
"  but  it  was  manners  to  let  my  Lord  have  the  first 
cut,  the  Pye  being  his  own."  The  intention,  the  ob 
ject  was  clearly  outlined  in  the  mind  of  Alsop;  this  is 
very  evident  from  the  analytic  form  of  the  title  page : 
"  A  Character  of  the  Province  of  Mary-land,  wherein 
is  Described  in  four  distinct  Parts,  (Viz.)  I.  The 
Scituation,  and  plenty  of  the  Province.  II.  The 
Laws,  Customs,  and  Natural  Demeanor  of  the  In 
habitants.  III.  The  worst  and  best  Vsage  of  a  Mary 
land  Servant,  opened  in  view.  IV.  The  Traffique, 
and  Vendable  Commodities  of  the  Countrey.  Also  A 
small  Treatise  on  the  Wilde  and  Naked  Indians  (or 
Susquehanokes)  of  Mary-land,  their  Customs,  Man 
ners,  Absurdities,  and  Religion.  Together  with  a 
Collection  of  Historical  Letters.  By  George  Alsop. 
London.  Printed  by  T.  J.  for  Peter  Dring,  at  the 
Sign  of  the  Sun  in  the  Poultrey;  1666." 

How  far  this  treatise  can  claim  originality  over 
whatever  had  already  been  written  is  not  so  very  evi 
dent;  it  takes  note  of  all  the  essential  points  that  any 
traveler  would  be  impressed  with — the  navigable 
rivers,  the  pleasant  prospect  of  swells  of  rich  land. 


COLONIAL   PERIOD  43 

There  is  an  inclination  to  stretch  the  truth,  but  it  throws 
light  on  conditions  in  Maryland  that  escaped  Ham 
mond,  who  thereby  proclaimed  himself  more  a  Virgin 
ian.  License  of  expression,  unrefined  innuendoes  are 
ever  before  the  eyes  of  this  Stuart  cavalier.  In  this  re 
spect,  in  his  flashes  of  wit,  he  is  different  from  our 
first  view  of  the  colonial  writer.  Some  have  claimed 
for  him  a  simple  mode  of  expression,  but  in  this  very 
matter  of  style,  Alsop  differs  materially  from  his 
predecessors;  he  is  no  longer  direct,  but  his  prose  is 
heightened  by  long-sounding  terms.  The  polish  of 
imitation  which  deprived  the  Restoration  writer  of 
freshness  and  made  him  bold,  quickly  laid  hold  on 
Alsop.  He  speaks  of  trees,  plants,  fruits  and  flowers 
as  "  the  only  Emblems  or  Hieroglyphicks  of  an  Adam- 
itical  or  Primitive  situation " ;  on  nearly  every  page 
we  are  confronted  by  such  euphemistic  phrases  as 
"  odoriferous  smells,"  "  effigies  of  Innocency,"  "  vege 
table  oratory,"  and  the  wind  that  whispers  "  softly  in 
the  auditual." 

For  the  sake  of  picturesqueness,  Alsop  is  willing 
to  stretch  the  truth;  there  was  not  the  religious  har 
mony  existent  between  Catholic  and  Protestant  which 
he  so  persistently  emphasizes ;  there  was  not  the  quiet 
existence  all  the  time  that  he  suggests,  neither  the  re 
serve  nor  morality.  He  leaves  much  for  us  to  picture 
of  himself  when  he  shows  how  futile  the  cause  of  a 
man  who  attempts  to  win  a  damsel  by  complimental 
and  critical  rarities.  Who  could  resist  the  fair  picture 
Alsop  paints  of  indenture  and  the  four  or  five  years' 
servitude?  And  after  it  was  done,  he  found  himself 
richer,  not  only  because  of  the  training  he  had  re 
ceived,  but  because  of  the  law  which  allotted  him  fifty 
acres  of  land,  a  year's  supply  of  corn,  wearing  apparel 
and  tools. 

Alsop  left  the  colony  in  1662,  returning  to  London, 
but  though  he  spent  much  time  in  writing  loyal  verse. 


44    THE    LITERATURE   OF   THE    SOUTH 

rough  hewn  and  faulty,  the  adventurous  spirit  would 
not  be  stilled,  and  so  he  next  sailed  for  Maryland, 
despondent  over  the  welfare  of  England,  though  re 
joicing  in  the  death  of  Cromwell.  He  was  unremit 
ting  in  his  correspondence,  and  continued  on  the  new 
soil  to  be  a  devoted  follower  of  the  Stuarts.  Mean 
while,  Alsop  failed  in  strength  and  was  sent  by  his 
cousin  Ellinor  Evins  some  herbs  which  made  him 
whole  again ;  so  he  dispatched  to  her  a  set  of  furs,  and 
penned  an  acrostic  declaiming  his  unending  love  and 
gratitude.  When  the  bands  of  servitude  were  lifted, 
Alsop  deplored  the  loss;  used  to  routine  and  com 
mand,  he  was  loath  to  call  himself  free,  for  "Lib 
erty  without  money,"  he  declares,  "  is  like  a  man 
opprest  with  the  gout."  In  this  strain,  he  writes  to 
his  brother  P.  A.  who,  about  the  same  time,  had  ended 
his  period  of  apprenticeship.  George,  always  free 
and  easy,  always  willing  to  obey  the  dictates  of  hisv 
heart,  likewise  possessed  an  open  generosity;  his  verses 
he  sent  away  by  every  ship,  but  hardly  ever  without 
some  token  of  another  kind.  To  his  brother,  with 
this  letter,  he  forwarded  a  supply  of  tobacco  and  some 
ornate  verses  "  On  a  Purple  Cap." 

But  soon,  the  old  illness  crept  upon  him  again  and 
then  his  thoughts  were  turned  upon  spiritual  matters; 
he  is  fain  to  have  his  reckoning  of  good  account.  The 
disease  left  him  shaken  to  the  core ;  the  shadow  of 
death  had  well-nigh  touched  him,  and  with  returning 
strength,  we  do  not  find  entirely  the  rollicking  royal 
ist.  The  flesh  has  been  chastened  by  the  spirit. 

It  was  now  very  evident  that  some  public  temper  had 
arisen  among  the  colonists;  they  showed  themselves 
capable  of  holding  opinions  as  to  the  full  significance 
of  public  affairs.  The  records  contain  mention  of  all 
local  events  bearing  upon  the  general  welfare,  and 
apart  from  the  documents  best  described  as  of  a  polit 
ical  nature,  there  are  a  few  instances  where  a  popular 


COLONIAL   PERIOD  45 

action  resulted  in  some  definite  literary  production. 
Such  distinction  may  be  claimed  for  Bacon's  Rebel 
lion,  a  popular  manifestation  encouraged  by  a  general 
love  for  liberty.  The  historical  incident  is  dramatic 
in  its  situation  where  such  a  personality  as  Bacon  is 
pitted  against  that  of  Governor  William  Berkeley, 
whose  irascibility  of  temper,  and  whose  prayer  of 
thanks  that  there  were  no  schools  or  presses  in 
Virginia,  have  helped  accentuate  him  as  a  typical 
colonial  governor.  The  manuscripts  known  as  the 
Burwell  Papers  were  not  discovered  until  some  years 
after  the  Revolution;  then  chance  brought  them  to 
light  in  the  house  of  a  Virginia  family  of  Burwells, 
living  on  Northern  Neck.  There  are  many  pamphlets 
extant,  records  of  the  Ingram  proceedings,  the  Bacon 
campaign,  a  list  of  executions  compiled  by  Berkeley 
himself,  and  finally  two  productions  which  have 
special  value  of  their  own.  One  is  in  the  form  of 
"  An  Account  of  Our  Late  Troubles  in  Virginia,  writ 
ten  in  1676  by  Mrs.  An.  Cotton  of  Q.  Creeke,  pub 
lished  from  the  original  MS.  in  the  Richmond  (Va.) 
Enquirer,  of  12  Sept.  1804."  The  lady  traces  acutely 
the  Indian  difficulties  and  Berkeley's  high-handed  re 
fusal  to  protect  the  country,  which  led  "  the  Gent  :man 
(without  any  scruple)  [to]  accept [s]  of  a  commission 
from  the  people's  affections."  She  addresses  herself 
to  a  man  abroad  and  displays  a  sympathy  that  rises  to 
allegorical  heights.  For  Bacon  pursues  the  wolves 
who  are  descending  upon  innocent  lambs,  and  in  re 
turn,  he  and  his  men  are  being  undeservedly  attacked 
in  the  rear.  Thus  does  she  outline  "  wordishly  "  the 
unsettled  matters  in  the  colony. 

A  companion  epistle  to  "  A.  C.  my  Wife  "  indicates 
how  warmly  engaged  the  husband's  interest  was.  He 
would  lead  you  to  understand  the  martyrdom  of 
Bacon;  his  attitude  is  as  strong  as  that  of  Berkeley 
who  would  hang  all  of  Bacon's  "  parasytes." 


46    THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

Tyler  would  have  it  believed  that  this  same  hus 
band  who  wrote  from  Jamestown  to  An.  Cotton 
on  June  9,  1676,  was  also  the  one  to  pen  the 
excellent  epitaph  which  was  made  by  Bacon's  man. 
There  is  some  small  evidence  to  strengthen  this  claim 
— a  similar  classicism,  and  an  equal  amount  of  feeling. 
The  verses  are  undoubtedly  excellent  in  construction 
and  dramatic  in  appeal.  There  is  an  active  force  at 
work  in  them,  a  mold  of  expression  that  has  an  art 
effect.  It  indicates  passion ;  it  breathes  forth  subtlety 
of  moral  meaning.  There  is  more  finish  in  its  manner 
of  expression.  The  epitaph  is  one  of  the  rare  results 
of  an  art  based  upon  individual  emotion  rather  than 
upon  visual  reproduction.  In  technique  it  is  one  of 
the  high  literary  points  in  colonial  writing. 

The  mystery  which  stamps  this  man  with  poetic 
ability,  likewise  spreads  and  becomes  much  more 
baffling  in  the  case  of  Ebenezer  Cook,  Gentleman,  a 
being  of  jocular  breadth,  who  after  leaving  his  manu 
script,  "  The  Sot-weed  Factor,"  for  the  world  to  enjoy, 
disappeared  as  completely  from  Maryland  as  Diedrich 
Knickerbocker  is  supposed  to  have  done  from  New 
York.  He  had  the  forethought,  and  the  critical  in 
sight  to  term  his  lines,  burlesque  verse.  But  despite 
the  humorous  character  of  the  jingles,  there  is  a  sub 
stratum  of  seriousness  that  shows  Ebenezer  Cook, 
Gentleman,  to  have  been  a  keen  observer  beneath  the 
outward  masquerading  of  his  nom  dc  phone. 

Yet  he  has  not  quite  succeeded  in  hiding  himself 
entirely.  There  cannot  be  ignored  the  fact  that  by  his 
very  coarseness,  his  allusions,  and  ribald  tavern  man 
ners,  this  Gentleman  had  descended  in  the  social  scale 
by  his  fast  living;  had,  as  one  of  his  editors  remarks, 
"  very  soon  discovered  that  Lord  Baltimore's  Colony 
was  not  the  court  of  her  Majesty  Queen  Anne,  or  its 
taverns  frequented  by  Addison  and  the  wits." 

And  it  seems  that  this  versifier  was  intent  on  add- 


COLONIAL   PERIOD  47 

ing  mystery  unto  mystery,  for  Ebenezer  Cook,  Gen 
tleman,  becomes  simply  E.  C.  Gent,  in  the  "  Sot-weed 
Redivivus,"  which  followed  the  former  book.  There 
is  small  direct  evidence  that  this  E.  C.  is  the  same 
man,  save  that  which  connects  the  titles,  and  associates 
the  forms  of  verse.  And  yet  it  is  very  evident,  on 
first  reading,  that  Professor  Tyler's  discrimination  is 
fine  and  just,  when  he  claims  that  they  resemble 
each  other  in  coarseness,  though  the  latter  is  wholly 
devoid  of  the  former's  saving  wit. 

The  first  book  is  resplendent  with  a  descriptive  title 
page — "  The  Sot-weed  Factor :  or,  A  Voyage  to 
Maryland.  A  Satyr.  In  which  is  described  The 
Laws,  Government,  Courts,  and  Constitutions  of  the 
Country,  and  also  the  Buildings,  Feasts,  Frolicks,  En 
tertainments  and  Drunken  Humours  of  the  Inhabitants 
of  that  Part  of  America.  In  Burlesque  Verse.  By 
Eben.  Cook,  Gent.  London :  Printed  and  Sold  by  D. 
Bragg,  at  the  Raven  in  Pater-Noster-Row.  1708 
(Price  6d.)." 

In  a  "  wavering  boat,"  he  braved  the  "  Surley 
Ocean,"  to  the  shores  of  Maryland: 

Intending  there  to  open  Store, 

I  put  myself  and  Goods  a-Shoar : 

Where  Soon  repaired  a  numerous  Crew     ... 

With  neither  Stockings,  Hat,  nor  Shooe. 

In  this  metre,  akin  in  its  monotonous  regularity  to 
the  nursery  books,  he  tells  how,  as  a  strange  conceit, 
he  imagined  this  the  land  of  Nod,  how  he  crossed  in 
a  canoe,  which  statement  is  told  in  a  skillful  rhyme 
hinting  at  Browningesque  dexterity  in  rhyme  endings : 

The  Indians  call  this  wattery  Waggon 
Canoo,  a  Vessel  none  can  brag  on. 

And  so  he  lands,  and  finds  himself  regarded  as  a 
runaway;  with  his  sword  lifted  in  air  he  brings  many 
to  his  way  of  believing,  and  he  is  greeted  by  a  planter's 


48    THE    LITERATURE    OF    THE    SOUTH 

household,  where  entertainment  is  for  the  asking  with 
out  payment,  "  syder,"  "pon,"  "milk,"  "mush," 
"  homine,"  and  "  mollossus."  Mine  host  is  cordial, 
warns  him  to  train  his  taste  to  crudeness,  but  for  to 
night,  they  will  drink  good  rum.  Here  is  the  picture: 
the  old  planter  smoking  the  "  weed  "  out  of  his  In 
dian  gun,  and  Cook,  guzzling  and  wild.  The  in 
decency  of  the  scenes  which  follow  would  be  disgust 
ing  did  they  not  throw  a  spark  of  character  light  on 
one  who  passed  as  chambermaid,  and  who  was  forced 
to  see  him  to  his  room ;  she  was  representative  of  a 
type — women  who  sold  themselves  in  Maryland,  and 
excused  the  act  by  claiming  that  bondage  in  this  way 
saved  them  from  a  hated  nuptial  at  home. 

In  Annapolis  his  description,  which  Green,  the 
printer,  challenged,  is  fully  tinged  by  unfortunate 
events  which  befell  him ;  in  such  a  place,  where  there 
is  scarcely  a  roof  whole  enough  to  keep  out  the  rain, 
where  the  judge  is  called  from  his  glass  and  bottle 
by  the  beat  of  drum,  prejudice  never  grants  a  favor 
able  verdict  to  a  stranger.  So  he  hastily  leaves,  curs 
ing  everyone  save  English  gentlemen  like  himself: 

May  wrath  Divine  then  lay  those  Region's  wast 
Where  no  Man's  Faithful,  nor  a  Woman  Chast. 

This  closes  the  piece  and  it  is  safe  to  call  the  author 
an  exaggerator,  whose  wit  reflects  much  more  of  him 
self  than  of  his  environment.  He  was  manifestly  an 
adventurer  seeking  wealth  through  barter;  he  evi 
dently  knew  how  to  haggle,  but  in  his  desire  to  get 
the  advantage,  was  himself  overtaken  by  the  same 
tricks.  He  was  not  attune  to  America,  nor  did  he 
come  over  for  any  other  reason  than  to  trade.  His 
sense  of  the  incongruous,  his  peculiarly  free  manner, 
together  with  his  aptness  in  verse-making,  emphasize 
him  as  a  critic  who  obtains  effect  through  cartoon 
exaggerations. 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  49 

His  second- piece  is  more  in  the  nature  of  a  treatise: 
".Sot-weed  Redivivus;  or,  The  Planters  Looking- 
Glass.  In  Burlesque  Verse.  Calculated  for  the 
Meridian  of  Maryland,  by  E.  C.  Gent:  Annapolis; 
William  Parks,  for  the  Author.  1730."  Tyler  might 
have  fortified  his  doubt  that  E.  C.  and  Ebenezer  Cook, 
who  dwelt  in  St.  Mary's  City  in  1693,  were  one  and 
the  same  person,  by  one  more  striking  evidence.  There 
are  certain  lines  in  the  one,  similar  in  sense  and  word 
ing  to  lines  in  the  other.  History  always  emphasizes 
the  royal  character  of  the  proprietary  form  of  colonial 
Maryland.  The  "  Redivivus  "  has  an  Elegy  on  the  Hon 
orable  Nicholas  Lowe,  one  of  the  5th  Lord  Balti 
more's  Council.  The  fact  that  this  same  Elegy  is 
signed  by  the  initials  E.  C.  with  the  addition  of 
"Laureat"  suggests  a  curious  possibility  that  the 
Lord  Proprietor,  living  almost  in  independent  royalty, 
employed  an  official  Poet-Laureate  of  Maryland  to 
sing  his  praises.  The  Elegy  shows  no  mean  ability  on 
E.  C.'s  part  to  sing  the  praises  lustily. 

The  great  doubt,  however,  as  to  the  authenticity  of 
Cook's  right  to  the  "  Redivivus,"  lies  in  the  complete 
ness  with  which  he  ignored  or  distorted  conditions  in 
the  first,  and  the  clearness  with  which  he  realized  the 
actual  need  of  the  colony  in  the  last  piece.  In  this, 
he  notes  the  desire  for  a  money  standard,  he  discusses 
Parliamentary  acts  to  limit  the  growth  of  tobacco,  he 
is  eager  over  the  knowledge  that  a  press  has  been 
established,  he  advises  the  proper  care  of  drains  in 
marshes  and  swamps,  he  pleads  for  the  shipping  in 
terests.  In  other  words,  the  second  author,  E.  C.  as 
opposed  to  Ebenezer  Cook,  Gent.,  is  more  a  colonist 
than  an  adventurer,  and  he  does  not  fail,  in  his  dis 
cussions,  to  speak  of  Maryland  as  "  my  country." 
This  much  we  can  believe  and  assert:  if  he  were  not 
the  author  of  both  burlesques,  the  laureate  was  a  very 
close  student  of  his  model. 


CHAPTER    III 

LATER   COLONIAL   AUTHORS 
FROM  JAMES  BLAIR  TO  PATRICK  TAILFER 

IT  is  always  a  rare  satisfaction  to  pass  from  shad 
owy  conjectures  to  substantial  and  healthy  actualities, 
and  in  the  case  of  Commissary  James  Blair  (1656- 
1743),  we  find  one  of  the  few  distinct  and  prepossess 
ing-  personalities  in  our  colonial  literary  history.  For 
with  his  exceptional  strength  of  bearing  and  earnest 
ness  of  purpose,  he  may  be  placed  perhaps  in  as  prom 
inent  a  light  as  Jefferson,  for  being  the  first  to  further 
the  cultural  element  in  Southern  life. 

The  many-sidedness  of  character  marks  him  at  once 
as  a  man  of  large  view-point;  his  Scotch  blood  helps 
us  to  understand  his  stanch  practical  efforts,  and  his 
spiritual  seriousness  impresses  us  with  his  dauntless 
courage  and  unerring  effort  for  the  good  of  the  Vir 
ginia  Colony.  In  1673,  he  obtained  his  Master's  de 
gree  from  Cambridge;  by  the  time  he  was  sent  to 
America,  he  had  served  in  an  Edinburgh  parish,  and 
had  won  favor  because  of  his  unswerving  faithfulness. 
Then  he  had  been  forced,  in  1679,  to  hasten  to  Eng 
land  because  of  the  Scotch  feeling  toward  the  Episco 
pal  Church.  And  he  turned  to  the  new  field  with 
great  hope,  despite  the  fact  that  clergymen  were  not 
then  in  high  repute,  and  the  living  was  by  no  means 
assured. 

However,  in  1685,  he  cheerfully  submitted  to  the 
duty  imposed  upon  him,  and  his  destination  was 
Henrico  City,  which  afterwards  became  Richmond. 
He  put  to  his  work  the  energy  of  determination,  en 
couraged  partly  by  the  good-will  of  the  Bishop  of 

50 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  '51 

London  who  had  urged  his  mission.  Therefore,  until 
1694,  Blair  preached,  winning  the  respect  of  the  colo 
nists  to  such  a  degree  that  there  was  some  demur 
when,  during  that  year,  he  was  called  to  Jamestown, 
a  little  nearer  to  what  was  known  as  the  Middle  Plan 
tation,  where  the  College  was  eventually  to  be  estab 
lished.  By  1710,  the  demand  forced  him  to  Williams- 
burg  itself,  where  he  was  somewhat  loath  to  go,  at 
the  same  time  realizing  the  convenience  attendant 
upon  the  move.  For,  on  December  4,  1710,  he  wrote: 
"  It  is  true,  I  have  so  many  obligations  to  ye  Parish 
of  James  City,  that  nothing  but  the  urgent  necessity 
of  health,  often  impaired  by  such  long  winter  jour 
neys,  and  a  fear  that  as  age  and  infirmaries  increase,  I 
shall  not  be  able  to  attend  that  service  (being  at  such 
a  distance)  so  punctually  as  I  have  hitherto  done, 
could  have  induced  me  to  entertain  anything  as  of 
leaving  them." 

By  the  time  he  moved  there,  he  was  wed  to  the 
daughter  of  Benjamin  Harrison  of  "  Wakefield," 
Surry  County,  and  what  with  his  own  reputation  as  a 
preacher,  and  his  popularity  as  a  man,  it  is  easy  to 
imagine  that  his  church  became  the  center  for  all  the 
well-to-do  folks  dwelling  between  the  James  and  the 
York  rivers.  John  Esten  Cooke  has  given  us  a  fair 
glimpse  of  the  life  of  the  then  capital  of  Virginia, 
where  the  governor  dwelt,  where  the  Burgesses  met, 
where  soon,  the  college  commencements  became  a 
feature  of  the  social  season.  All  classes  were  as 
sembled  there — the  refined,  the  unrefined;  the  aristo 
crat,  the  servant,  and  the  slave.  But  also,  there  was 
destined  to  arise  a  middle  class  which  was  to  be  the 
back-bone,  the  stamina,  of  Revolutionary  action. 

Blair's  parish  was  Bruton,  an  aggregate  of  smaller 
groups,  held  firmly  together  by  a  new  church  which 
was  soon  begun.  In  this  building  crowded  the  elite 
to  hear  the  unfailing  eloquence  and  earnestness  of 


52    THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

the  preacher.  Whatever  his  duties  might  be,  whether 
political  or  otherwise,  James  Blair  was  first,  last 
and  always  the  minister  of  the  Gospel.  It  was 
his  primary  duty  to  attend  to  the  needs  of  his  flock, 
and  to  his  assistance  he  brought  the  Reverend 
Hugh  Jones,  who  for  an  entire  year  gave  Sunday 
evening  sermons.  Were  Blair  to  be  called  away,  he 
was  always  sure  to  appoint  someone  in  his  stead,  and 
so  scrupulous  was  he,  that  he  always  refused  the  sal 
ary  due  him  in  spite  of  his  absence. 

He  was  popular,  because  it  appears  that  he 
preached  a  practical  Christianity;  his  texts  were 
usually  brought  to  bear  upon  immediate  problems. 
He  was  a  type  of  man  who  held  power  because  he 
sought  it  by  just  and  simple  means.  He  had  in  him 
indomitable  will  to  do,  and  dignity  to  suffer.  He 
worked  sedulously  to  revive  the  true  spirit  of  Chris 
tianity.  His  was  not  to  consider  morals  in  theory, 
but  to  arouse  in  others  a  determination  to  put  into 
practice  what  he  preached.  His  sermons,  printed 
in  1722,  and  brought  out  in  another  edition  during 
1740,  number  one  hundred  and  seventeen,  and  are 
bound  together  by  a  unity  of  interpretation  clearly  de 
fined  in  the  title :  "  Our  Saviour's  Divine  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  contained  in  the  Vth,  Vlth,  and  VHth 
Chapters  of  St.  Matthew's  Gospel,  explained:  And 
the  Practice  of  it  Recommended  in  divers  Sermons 
and  Discourses.  In  four  volumes.  To  which  is  pre- 
fix'd  A  Paraphrase  on  the  whole  Sermon  on  the 
Mount :  And  Two  Copious  Indexes  annex'd ;  one  of 
the  Scriptures  explain'd,  the  other  of  the  particular 
Heads  treated  of  in  the  work.  By  James  Blair,  M.  A. 
Commissary  of  Virginia,  President  of  William  and 
Mary  College,  and  Rector  of  Williamsburgh  in  that 
Colony." 

The  general  tone  of  such  an  ambitious  survey  as 
this  might  have  been  purely  doctrinal ;  the  pulpit  gen- 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  53 

erally,  then  as  now,  could  not  be  tempted  to  go  far 
beyond  the  letter.  Blair's  idea  was  to  interpret  the 
spirit,  to  apply  as  he  went  along,  to  form  a  running 
commentary  of  useful  worth  as  well  as  of  scholarly 
value.  His  interpretation  has  been  widely  regarded 
as  a  faithful  guide  to  the  New  Testament.  In  his 
prefatory  word,  Blair  reveals  his  open  mind,  his  bal 
ance  of  the  theologian  with  the  man.  He  expresses 
his  desire,  in  his  sermons,  "  to  adapt  them  properly  to 
Times,  Persons,  and  Circumstances;  to  guard  them 
against  latent  Prejudices,  and  Secret  Subterfuges ; 
and  lastly,  to  enforce  them  with  a  becoming  Earnest 
ness,  and  with  all  the  prudent  Ways  of  Insinuation 
and  Addrese."  Blair  knew  that  knowledge  of  the 
world  .  .  .  must  be  possessed  by  a  minister. 

He  strove  unabatingly  to  fill  the  vacancies  every 
where  found  in  Virginia ;  such  an  out-of-the-way  place 
as  this  colony  was  no  incentive  to  London  divines, 
and,  wrongly,  no  efforts  were  exerted  to  send  over 
men  other  than  of  ordinary  ability.  Blair  rectified 
all  this,  and  out  of  his  effort  to  improve  conditions, 
and  out  of  the  immediate  necessity  to  supply  this  want, 
grew  one  of  the  strong  incentives  for  the  establish 
ment  of  William  and  Mary  College. 

High  authority  has  ever  been  the  source  of  exten 
sive  jealousy,  and  Blair  soon  found  himself  occupying 
a  position  where  he  was  open  to  unjust  censure.  He 
had  ever  been  looked  on  askance,  since  he  was  a 
Scotchman,  but  now,  in  those  very  conventions  which 
he  called  together,  he  found  it  necessary  to  offer  a 
stern  front  to  an  opposition  of  large  proportions. 
The  scene  presented  in  church  meeting  must  have 
been  striking,  and  the  satire  and  intellectual  contests 
revealed  considerable  ability  of  a  brilliant  character. 
Throughout,  Blair  retained  a  dignified  position, 
marked  by  a  thorough  self-control.  Sometimes  these 
assemblies  lasted  two  days. 


54    THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

As  the  head  of  such  a  gathering,  no  one  but  a  diplo 
mat  could  have  averted  open  rupture,  and  all  the  while 
clerical  conditions  were  actually  improving.  By  1733, 
there  were  only  two  vacancies  which  needed  imme 
diate  attention. 

How  far  the  establishment  of  William  and  Mary 
College  remedied  these  conditions  need  not  occupy 
our  present  attention.  Blair  had  begun  his  efforts  as 
early  as  1690.  Before  then  George  Sandys,  with 
others,  had  obtained  from  his  brother  a  special  grant 
of  10,000  acres  for  a  university  at  Henrico,  and  money 
was  contributed  as  well  as  public  interest  secured. 
But  an  Indian  massacre  destroyed  the  impetus  thus 
started,  and  it  was  not  until  1660  that  the  colonial 
Assembly  thought  of  the  means  for  founding  a  col 
lege  and  free  schools.  If  the  colonists  were  not  of 
the  same  mind  as  Governor  Berkeley,  they  at  least 
were  hardly  over-enthusiastic  in  their  desire  for  educa 
tion  on  a  large  scale,  any  more  than  they  were  anxious 
to  settle  in  cities.  The  common  education  was  slow 
to  begin ;  the  individual  needs  were  satisfied  by  tutors 
sent  from  abroad.  Blair  realized  this  lethargic  indif 
ference,  and  his  energy  was  of  the  exact  kind  to  cope 
with  the  situation.  It  mattered  little  if  there  were  a 
privately  endowed  school,  and  a  few  scattered  log 
cabins  devoted  to  teaching  the  elements  of  learning, 
he  determined  to  develop  a  realization  of  the  need  for 
something  higher. 

So  he  took  the  campaign  right  into  the  House  of 
Burgesses,  and  in  earnest  phrases  urged  the  petitions, 
until  he  saw  general  approval  gaining  ground.  What 
was  most  desired  were  charter,  land-grants,  and  part 
of  the  quit-rents  to  begin  with.  Was  this  much  to 
ask  when  the  heathens  would  be  more  quickly  Chris 
tianized,  and  ministers  more  quickly  secured? 

In  the  end,  the  Assembly  of  1691  voted  to  send 
Blair  to  England  in  the  interests  of  his  scheme.  He 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  55 

went  over  in  June,  but  arrived  at  an  inopportune  time, 
since  the  King  was  off  to  the  wars,  the  Bishop  of  Lon 
don  ill,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  away. 
With  war  in  Flanders,  Parliament  had  other  things 
than  colonial  education  to  bear  in  mind.  Blair  ex 
hibited  his  usual  undaunted  hopefulness.  He  was 
successful  in  obtaining  private  funds,  and  by  the  wis 
dom  of  his  talk  and  the  clearness  of  his  views,  he  won 
over  in  the  Fall  the  support  of  the  Bishop  and  of  the 
Queen ;  the  King  and  Archbishop  followed  suit.  The 
charter  was  granted  on  February  19,  1693,  and  with 
it  land  and  revenue,  part  of  which  was  collected  on 
export  tobacco  from  Maryland  and  Virginia.  The 
only  opposition  he  had  met  with  was  from  the  Attor 
ney-General,  who,  of  practical  bent,  laughed  boldly  at 
Blair's  statement  that  the  colonists  "  had  souls  to  be 
saved  as  well  as  their  English  countrymen."  "  Souls, 
damn  your  souls !  Make  tobacco !  "  came  the  startling 
reply.  The  colonists  were  now  beginning  to  realize 
that  England  looked  to  her  possessions  for  nothing 
more  than  material  returns. 

The  history  of  the  college  now  passes  into  the  ac 
tive  intellectual  forces  of  Virginia  life,  until  it  was  met 
by  a  much  larger  force  in  the  University  of  Virginia, 
when  it  began  to  decrease  in  influence.  Its  faculty 
was  largely  drawn  from  Edinburgh,  Oxford  and  Cam 
bridge,  and  its  scholarship  produced  men  of  such 
stamp  as  Jefferson,  Monroe,  Marshall  and  Tyler.  It 
has  a  right  to  be  regarded  as  the  pioneer  force  in 
Southern  culture. 

Its  early  life  is  thus  seen  to  have  been  protected  and 
encouraged  by  the  careful  maneuvers  of  Blair;  both 
here  and  abroad  he  wielded  his  executive  ability 
wisely,  all  the  more  remarkable  since  he  was  in  con 
stant  friction  with  the  executive.  We  may  construct 
an  excellent  portrait  of  the  man  as  a  diplomat,  whether 
as  one  of  the  Council  or  as  judge  of  the  highest  court 


56     THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

in  the  colony.  In  these  positions,  he  was  brought  into 
relations  with  Andros,  Nicholson,  and  Spotswood. 

Domineering  in  character,  Andros  watched  zeal 
ously  every  move  that  such  a  prominent  man  as  Blair 
would  make.  When  he  struck  at  the  Commissary,  he 
did  so  by  aiming  a  blow  at  his  efforts  to  establish  the 
college ;  probably  he  also  did  not  hesitate  to  usurp  the 
prerogatives  of  the  church.  Fearlessly,  Blair  weighed 
the  actual  situation,  and  spoke  of  the  Governor's  ob 
structive  policy,  thus  making  a  direct  statement  before 
the  Council.  For  this  action,  he  was  suspended  from 
further  meetings,  but  soon  had  the  satisfaction  of 
learning  that  the  King  was  surprised  at  the  Govern 
or's  unwarranted  action. 

As  Deputy-Governor,  Nicholson  began  by  acknowl 
edging  the  friendship  of  Blair,  but  it  was  not  long 
before  his  disposition,  vain  and  self-willed,  obtained 
complete  mastery  over  his  feelings  and  his  attitude. 
His  assertiveness  took  the  form  of  vituperation;  he 
swore  at  his  councilors,  his  actions  became  immoral, 
and  in  every  way  he  made  himself  obnoxious.  This 
was  not  to  pass  unnoticed  by  Blair,  who  warned  the 
Governor  of  his  tyranny,  and  awaited  calmly  the 
machinations  he  was  assured  would  quickly  follow. 
Nicholson  at  the  time  was  in  love,  and  his  paying 
court  was  received  with  no  evident  encouragement ;  in 
consequence,  his  wrath  knew  no  bounds  when  he  was 
told  that  Blair's  brother,  Archibald,  was  his  supposed 
rival. 

By  far  the  most  weighty  figure  of  the  three  was 
Governor  Spotswood  (1710),  whose  nobility  of  char 
acter  was  none  the  less  admired  because  of  his  over- 
keen  guarding  of  royal  power.  This  it  was  that 
blinded  him  and  became  the  barrier  between  himself 
and  Blair.  For  the  two  in  many  details  sympathized 
one  with  the  other,  and  the  Governor's  support  of  the 
educational  policy  was  balanced  by  Blair's  approval 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  57 

of  Spotswood's  desire  to  penetrate  the  Blue  Ridge 
mountains,  and  to  settle  the  valley  which  lay  beyond. 
We  have  already  seen  under  what  circumstances  this 
was  accomplished. 

The  Church  and  State  were  now  in  juxtaposition; 
the  close  policy  of  the  Governor  was  regarded  with 
ill-favor  by  the  House  of  Burgesses,  inclined  to  be 
open  in  its  expression.  On  the  other  hand,  as  willing 
as  Blair  was  to  abide  strictly  by  the  letter  of  the  eccle 
siastical  law,  and  as  wisely  as  he  had  shifted  his  view 
point  from  one  civil  law  to  the  other,  in  order  to  keep 
them  separate,  he  would  brook  no  interference  with 
his  own  prerogatives.  Herein,  the  policies  of  Blair 
and  Spotswood  clashed,  and  in  consequence  misunder 
standings  arose,  during  which  Byrd  and  Blair  found 
themselves  pitted  against  each  other  in  the  preferred 
charges.  The  spirit  of  protest  was  assuming  vital 
proportions. 

Historically,  Blair  is  a  character  to  be  reckoned 
with ;  his  efforts  embrace  a  large  part  of  colonial  his 
tory;  few  have  a  record  to  place  by  his  in  comparison. 
The  startling  figures,  first  noted  by  Professor  Tyler, 
should  not  be  overlooked  in  an  estimate:  fifty-eight 
years  as  a  missionary  of  the  Church  of  England ;  fifty- 
four  years  as  Commissary  of  the  Bishop  of  London; 
fifty  years  as  President  of  William  and  Mary;  and 
fifty  years  as  a  member  of  the  King's  Council,  in 
which  he  likewise  served  as  President.  He  was  a  true 
colonial  force,  a  reformer  typical  of  the  healthy  tissue 
of  Southern  life;  not  vitiated  or  limited  by  old  con 
servative  ideas,  but  endeavoring  to  interpret  all  ac 
tions,  all  policies,  for  the  good  of  the  greatest  numbers. 

No  one  during  this  time,  it  may  be  truly  said,  had 
shown  a  distinctively  historical  sense,  had  indeed 
started  out  to  write  an  authoritative  account  of  colon 
ization,  based  as  much  on  sources  as  on  observation. 
There  were  now  sufficient  documentary  data  and  per- 


58     THE    LITERATURE    OF    THE    SOUTH 

sonal  records  upon  which  to  draw  for  a  systematic 
narrative,  and  no  one  felt  more  suited  for  the  self- 
appointed  task  than  Robert  Beverley  (circa  1675- 
1716,  although  other  authorities  say  1670-1735),  who 
had  succeeded  his  father,  in  1697,  as  clerk  of  the 
Council  of  Virginia,  with  Andros  as  Governor,  and 
who,  until  1705,  when  "  The  History  and  Present 
State  of  Virginia  "  was  issued,  became  a  close  student 
of  colonial  ways  and  policies. 

I  have  used  a  copy  of  the  second  edition,  embel 
lished  with  plates  graphically  described  in  the  text, — 
illustrations  which  had  first  appeared  in  a  French 
translation.  In  general  it  may  be  claimed  for  Bev 
erley  that  he  was  an  extensive  reader,  and  that  with 
due  credit  to  his  sources,  he  drew  upon  them,  quoting 
passages  of  salient  significance.  Besides  which,  his 
torical  fact  did  not  seem  to  detract  from  the  sense  of 
human  value,  of  poetic  feeling  with  which  he  coped 
with  natural  environment.  Show  me  your  adjective 
and  I  will  tell  you  how  true  a  part  of  man  the  love 
of  Nature  is. 

Beverley  had  learned,  nevertheless,  that  not  only 
would  the  sequence  of  events  which  marked  the 
progress  of  Virginia,  be  insufficient  to  indicate  its 
essential  value,  but  that  the  initial  spirit  contained  in 
the  early  colonial  colonization  tract  must  be  raised  to 
the  standard  of  historical  accuracy.  Akin  to  his  age 
in  the  efflorescent  manner  of  style,  his  attempt  was  to 
reach  a  comprehensive  view  of  his  subject.  Therefore, 
he  divided  his  book  into  four  parts:  "(J-)  The  His 
tory  of  the  First  Settlement  of  Virginia,  and  the  Gov 
ernment  thereof,  to  the  year  1706.  (2.)  The  natural 
Productions  and  Conveniencies  of  the  Country,  Suited 
to  Trade  and  Improvement.  (3.)  The  Native  In 
dians,  their  Religion,  Laws,  and  Customs,  in  War  and 
Peace.  (4.)  The  present  State  of  the  Country,  as  to 
the  Polity  of  the  Government,  and  the  Improvements 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  59 

of  the  Land,  the  loth  of  June.  [By  a  Native  and  In 
habitant  of  the  Place.  2nd  ed.,  1722.]" 

In  scope,  this  may  not  appear  to  be  greater  in  pur 
pose  than  what  others  had  already  accomplished,  but 
whereas  all  previous  efforts  had  been  more  or  less 
casual,  this  new  work  had  behind  it  considerable  ex 
perience.  Beverley,  as  he  avers,  had  from  early  youth 
taken  notes  on  government  and  administration, 
"  With  no  other  Design  than  the  Gratification  of  my 
own  inquisitive  Mind."  He  was  all  the  more  pre 
pared  to  detect  instantly  the  faulty  enthusiasms  and 
the  very  sweeping  claims  of  other  travelers,  who  not 
even  coming  as  closely  in  contact  with  conditions  as 
himself,  yet  returned  to  the  mother  country  with 
seemingly  authoritative  accounts  full  of  false  exag 
geration.  This  he  found  to  be  the  case  when  he  came 
to  London  in  1703,  after  service  in  the  colony.  A 
bookseller  gave  him  a  manuscript  to  read — Virginia 
and  Carolina  described  in  six  sheets  of  paper.  With 
innocent  unconcern,  Beverley  began  his  task,  noting 
the  while  those  corrections  which  seemed  to  him  de 
sirable  as  well  as  imperative.  But  the  author  of 
these  inadequate  pages  was  not  only  faulty,  had  not 
only  abridged  the  work  of  others,  but  had  chosen  with 
almost  malicious  intent  those  very  passages  for  quo 
tation  which  were  most  untrue.  Beverley's  report 
to  the  bookseller  was  relentless,  and  there  dawned 
upon  him  the  necessity  of  setting  to  the  task  himself. 
He  felt  himself  equipped  for  the  work,  but  there  was 
a  greater  motive  than  this  actuating  him : 

"  I  should  the  rather  undertake  in  Justice  to  So  fine 
a  Country;  because  it  has  been  So  misrepresented  to 
the  Common  People  of  England,  as  to  make  them  be 
lieve,  that  the  Servants  in  Virginia  are  made  to  draw 
in  Cart  and  Plow,  as  Horses  and  Oxen  do  in  Eng 
land,  and  that  the  Country  turns  all  People  black, 
who  go  to  live  there,  with  other  Such  prodigious 


60    THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

Phantasms."  Nor  was  it  his  intention,  once  the  book 
was  written,  to  have  it  included  with  any  other  per 
son's  compilation,  such  as  Oldmixon,  who,  hearing  of 
this  opposition,  let  spleen  against  Beverley  trickle  from 
his  pen  point.  The  new  historian,  therefore,  set  to  his 
work  with  consuming  regard  for  accuracy ;  his  pene 
tration  was  keen,  his  mind  logical,  his  examination 
analytical.  He  did  not  refrain  from  detecting  faults 
in  the  country  he  was  describing,  although  in  the  main 
his  accounts  are  favorable ;  he  was  quick  to  correct  the 
statements  of  others,  when  they  did  not  correspond 
with  what  came  under  his  immediate  intelligence  or 
observation.  He  was  never  caustic,  but  his  humor 
was  dry,  incisive,  and  telling.  Quoting  one  authority, 
Beverley  adds :  "  He  tells  of  Camels  brought  by 
Some  Guinea  Ships  to  Virginia;  but  had  not  then 
heard  how  they  throve  with  us; — I  don't  know  how 
he  should,  for  there  never  was  any  such  thing  done." 

Thus,  he  sets  the  standard  for  historical  statement 
according  to  his  own  investigations  or  observations; 
he  would  not  accept  data  second  hand ;  and  the  bold 
assertions  which  he  read  were  regarded  by  him  with 
suspicion.  It  is  well  to  hear  his  own  intention :  "  The 
Account  that  I  have  given  in  the  following  Sheets  is 
plain  and  true,  and  if  it  be  not  written  with  So  much 
Judgment,  or  in  So  good  a  Method  and  Stile  as  I 
could  wish,  yet  in  the  Truth  of  it  I  rest  fully  Satisfied. 
In  this  Edition  I  have  also  retrench'd  Such  Partic 
ulars  as  related  only  to  private  Transactions  and 
Characters  in  the  Historical  Part;  as  being  too  di 
minutive  to  be  transmitted  to  Posterity,  and  Set  down 
the  Succession  of  the  Governors,  with  the  more  gen 
eral  Incidents  of  their  Government,  without  Reflection 
upon  the  private  Conduct  of  any  Person." 

This  history  of  Virginia  is  a  direct  document,  but 
it  has  as  well  the  advantage  of  being  a  simple  narra 
tive  of  some  picturesqueness.  These  early  chroniclers 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  61 

because  of  their  nearness  to  the  scene  are  not  obscure, 
nor  does  their  humanity  become  imbedded  in  subtle 
motives;  they  describe  what  they  see  and  their  com 
ment  is  to  the  point, — 'naive  in  expression  but  sharply 
outlined;  this  is  true  whether  it  relate  to  commerce, 
religion,  or  immediate  social  condition.  With  con 
siderable  skill,  Beverley's  narrative  paints  the  improve 
ments  and  deficiencies.  His  style  is  in  some  respects 
a  fair  indication  of  the  telling  art  of  the  man,  for 
Beverley  was  often  lost  in  the  mere  human  value  of 
the  scene.  He  writes : 

"  Sir  Edmund  Andros  being  upon  a  Progress  one 
Summer,  call'd  at  a  poor  Man's  House  in  Stafford 
County  for  Water.  There  came  out  to  him  an  ancient 
Woman,  and  with  her,  a  lively  brisk  Lad  about  twelve 
Years  old.  The  Lad  was  So  ruddy,  and  fair,  that  his 
Complection  gave  the  Governor  a  Curiosity  to  ask 
Some  Questions  concerning  him ;  and  to  his  great  Sur 
prise  was  told,  that  he  was  the  Son  of  that  Woman, 
at  76  Years  of  Age.  His  Excellency,  Smiling  at  this 
Improbability,  enquir'd  what  Sort  of  Man  had  been 
his  Father?  To  this  the  good  Woman  made  no  reply, 
but  instantly  ran,  and  led  her  Husband  to  the  Door, 
who  was  then  above  100  Years  old.  He  confirmed 
all  that  the  Woman  had  Said  about  the  Lad,  and,  not 
withstanding  his  great  Age,  was  Strong  in  his  Limbs, 
and  Voice;  but  had  lost  his  Sight.  The  Woman  for 
her  part  was  without  Complaint  and  Seem'd  to  retain 
a  Vigor  very  uncommon  at  her  Years.  Sir  Edmund 
was  So  pleas'd  with  this  extraordinary  Account,  that, 
after  having  made  himself  known  to  them,  he  offer'd 
to  take  care  of  the  Lad.  But  they  would  by  no  means 
be  persuaded  to  part  with  him.  However,  he  gave 
them  20  Pounds/' 

This  is  an  agreeable  picture,  excellently  well  painted. 
Beverley  was  always  keen  for  this  warmth  of  native 
life ;  he  was  equally  as  intent  when  it  came  to  obtaining 


I 
62     THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

information  from  others.  Incongruous  as  it  might 
seem,  he  describes  how,  in  order  to  unloose  the  tongue 
of  an  Indian  sufficiently  to  make  him  talk  freely'of  the 
redman's  conception  of  God,  he  plied  him  with  strong 
cider.  Sometimes,  nevertheless,  his  enthusiasm  be 
came  slightly  over-emphasized,  but  not  for  any  length 
of  time.  And  however  much  he  tried  to  counteract 
the  reports  which  were  being  spread  to  the  detriment 
of  the  colony,  and  to  the  discouragement  of  those 
wishing  to  become  indentured  servants,  Beverley  did 
not  pass  by  unnoticed  the  besetting  failing  of  the 
whole  Southern  country.  For  his  history  closes  with 
these  ominous  words  of  criticism  and  warning: 

"  They  depend  altogether  upon  the  Liberality  of 
Nature,  without  endeavoring  to  improve  its  Gifts  by 
Art  or  Industry.  They  Spunge  upon  the  Blessings 
of  a  warm  Sun,  and  a  Fruitful  Soil,  and  almost  grutch 
the  Pains  of  gathering  in  the  Bounties  of  the  Earth. 
I  should  be  ashamed  to  publish  this  Slothful  Indolence 
of  my  Countrymen,  but  that  I  hope  it  will  Some  time 
or  other  rouse  them  out  of  their  Lethargy,  and  excite 
them  to  make  the  most  of  all  those  happy  Advantages 
which  Nature  has  given  them;  and  if  it  does  this,  I 
am  Sure  they  will  have  the  Goodness  to  forgive  me." 

The  establishment  of  a  center  of  learning  in  Virginia 
attracted  several  worthy  men  to  the  faculties,  among 
whom  the  Reverend  Hugh  Jones  stands  distinct  for 
his  literary  accomplishment.  Holding  the  position  of 
Rector  of  Jamestown,  he  likewise  presided  as  profes 
sor  of  mathematics  in  the  college.  Having  the  distinc 
tion  of  being  chaplain  of  the  colonial  Assembly,  he  is 
just  as  unique  for  being  the  first  to  write  text-books 
in  this  country — an  English  grammar,  an  Accidence  to 
Christianity,  and  an  Accidence  to  Mathematics.  But 
the  work  by  which  he  is  known  is  his  critical  treatise 
on  Virginia,  wherein  he  shows  a  power  to  be  pic 
turesque,  to  be  active,  to  be  analytic  in  reaching  the 


COLONIAL   PERIOD  63 

crux  of  any  situation,  to  be  synthetic  when  any  new 
scheme  is  unfolded.  His  book  bears  the  title :  "  The 
Present  State  of  Virginia,  giving  a  particular  and 
Short  Account  of  the  Indian,  English  and  Negro  In 
habitants  of  the  Colony,  Shewing  their  Religion,  Man 
ners,  Government,  Trading,  Way  of  Living,  &c.,  with 
a  description  of  the  Country.  From  whence  is  inferred 
a  Short  view  of  Maryland  and  North  Carolina.  To 
which  is  added,  Schemes  and  Propositions  for  the 
better  Promotion  of  Learning,  Religion,  Inventions, 
Manufactures,  and  Trade  in  Virginia  and  the  other 
Plantations.  For  the  Information  of  the  Curious, 
and  for  the  Service  of  Such  as  are  engaged  in  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel  and  Advancement  of 
Learning,  and  for  the  Use  of  all  Persons  concerned  in 
the  Virginia  Trade  and  Plantation."  (1724.) 

This  very  clearly  indicates  that  Jones  has  in  the 
major  part  of  his  book  simply  retraced  the  ground 
covered  by  others;  the  advantage  in  examining  some 
what  closely  the  different  divisions  of  the  work  lies 
in  the  point  of  view,  which  is  more  critical,  and  more 
keen  in  its  insight  into  the  future  effect  of  present 
evils.  "  I  have  industriously  avoided  the  ornamental 
Dress  of  Rhetorical  Flourishes,  esteeming  them  unfit 
for  the  naked  Truth  of  historical  Relations,  and  im 
proper  for  the  Purpose  of  General  Propositions."  The 
life  of  the  colony  has  interest  for  him ;  also  4;he  native 
capacity  for  doing  things,  the  public  participation  in 
the  Governor's  balls.  He  recognizes  a  transplanted 
English  gentry  in  the  first  families  that  roll  in  Coach 
or  Chaise  toward  Virginia's  capital ;  he  has  sensed 
the  economic  reasons  for  the  disinclination  of  the  Vir 
ginia  gentleman  to  live  in  towns.  With  an  almost 
prophetic  attitude,  he  points  out  the  evils  of  slavery; 
and  thus  in  the  midst  of  a  civilization  which  Jones 
has  unconsciously  indicated  as  peculiar  to  soil  and 
climate,  he  tries  to  reckon  with  the  free  and  easy 


64    THE    LITERATURE    OF    THE    SOUTH 

manners  of  a  patriarchal  form  of  life.  By  taste  and 
inclination,  the  Southern  planter  is  a  business  man ; 
he  does  not  read,  but  talks  and  appeals  by  word ; 
Jones  knew  his  limitations,  his  style.  Through  his 
text-books  he  tried  to  counteract  this  book  indolence. 
He  was  used  to  being  waited  on;  he  did  not  regard 
labor  as  worthy  of  notice  by  a  gentleman,  and  more 
•willingly  embraced  horse-racing  or  cock-fight  ing. 
The  details  are  minute  appertaining  to  the  country 
life  of  the  hospitable  planter.  There  is  a  tone  which 
deplores  the  waste  of  energy  and  the  overlavishness 
of  Nature.  In  other  words,  to  this  writer,  the  South 
ern  people  were  epicures  who  were  wasteful  in  their 
hospitality  and  plentiful  in  all  things  pertaining  to 
their  palates. 

The  white  servants  were  particularly  considered 
by  him — the  three  classes  of  wage,  indentured  and 
criminal  folk,  the  latter  of  whom  they  could  have 
very  well  dispensed  with.  Jones  shows  practical  eco 
nomic  insight  and  is  unfailing  in  his  observation  of 
the  condition  of  the  comparatively  few  poor,  and  of 
the  factors  who  managed  and  directed  the  business 
of  the  stores  and  warehouses.  He  seemed  to  be  fully 
aware  of  the  activity  all  about  him;  was  a  reader  of 
Smith  and  of  Beverley;  was  naturally  keenly  alive 
to  the  energy  and  responsibility  of  Blair;  and  from 
his  knowledge,  he  began  a  species  of  constructive  rea 
soning  that  took  shape  in  various  schemes  for  the 
betterment  of  the  higher  life  of  the  colony. 

In  regard  to  the  churches,  Jones  comments  on  the 
isolation  of  meeting-houses,  the  great  distances  com 
pelling  rich  families  to  have  their  own  rector,  and 
making  the  head  of  a  parish  practically  an  independent 
minister,  who  could  develop  moral  customs  of  his 
own.  The  parish  schools  were  rudimentary  and  a 
crying  need  to  him  was  the  baptizing  of  Indians  and 
Negroes;  this  latter  desire  was  not  to  improve  their 


COLONIAL   PERIOD  65 

chances  in  a  world  spiritual,  but  to  turn  them  into 
better  servants,  "  for  Christianity  encourages  and 
orders  them  to  become  more  humble."  Approaching 
the  subject  from  the  ultra-critical  standpoint,  it  is 
understood  how  Jones's  thoughts  were  centered  on  the 
Accidence  of  Christianity. 

The  views  expressed,  whether  economic,  religious, 
or  educational,  are  not  narrow ;  they  are  characterized 
by  some  reading,  by  wide  investigations  which  in 
cluded  the  States  of  Maryland  and  North  Carolina; 
they  are  not  overlavish  in  praise,  they  are  bold  and 
direct  in  condemnation.  In  fact,  as  Jones  says,  "  I  de 
liver  my  Sentiments  in  as  free  and  plain  a  manner  as 
I  can,  Specifying  what  Redundancies  or  Deficiencies 
occur  to  my  Opinion."  His  schemes  are  manifold,  not 
pertaining  to  one  interest,  but  well  apportioned  in  all 
directions.  He  would  have  a  more  definite  educa 
tional  system,  to  be  run  on  a  financial  basis  which 
was  practical  as  well  as  just.  He  had  watched  closely 
the  difficulties  under  which  Blair  had  labored,  and 
he  learned  the  hampering  influences  besetting  a  col 
lege.  When  he  proposes  improvements  in  the  direc 
tion  of  the  religious  welfare  in  Virginia,  he  again 
speaks  from  experience.  His  conviction  is  that  no 
where  more  than  in  the  colonies  is  an  efficient  clergy 
needed;  and  though  there  was  a  rooted  prejudice 
against  such  a  thing  as  an  ecclesiastical  court,  the 
morals  and  practices  should  be  submitted  to  the  rigor 
of  constant  visitation  and  searching  examination. 
Thus  determined  in  his  opinions,  he  was  no  less  firm 
in  regard  to  the  arts,  inventions,  manufactures,  and 
trade  schemes  which  would  conduce  to  the  betterment 
of  Virginia. 

These  men  who  wrote  in  this  manner  were  distinc 
tive  for  the  attention  which  they  paid  to  all  the  activi 
ties  of  their  immediate  life;  they  were  truly  citizens 
in  the  sense  that  they  tried  to  express  themselves  on 


THE    LITERATURE    OF    THE    SOUTH 

the  questions  of  the  day.  They  were  not  literary 
men;  they  were  dealing  with  facts,  with  immediate 
conditions.  They  were  all  more  or  less  economists; 
in  this  field  they  received  their  important  stimulus. 
They  did  not  chant  from  the  shadow  of  the  meeting 
house,  but  stood  in  the  midst  of  their  plantations, 
reckoning  how  best  to  profit  by  their  acres.  Still, 
though  this  material  criticism  is  the  one  generally 
taken  by  planters,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  already 
a  college  had  been  founded  and  the  clergy  were  be 
coming  better  prepared  for  the  work  before  them. 
The  cultural  element  was  strong,  if  not  austere.  Be 
cause  of  this  latter  characteristic,  New  England  has 
always  held  dominance  as  being  more  conservative. 

A  figure  rising  head  and  shoulders  above  the 
colonial  men  of  his  time  was  Colonel  William  Byrd, 
of  Westover  (1674-1744),  an  interesting  contrast  to 
the  thorough,  disinterested  and  earnest  James  Blair. 
He  is  the  typical  landed  proprietor;  his  family  the 
romantic  exponents  of  that  aristocratic  society  which 
has  blinded  so  many  to  the  other  current  of  Southern 
life  upon  which  the  present  life  has  risen.  Without 
our  old  aristocracy,  we  would  have  been  so  much  the 
poorer;  they  developed  that  courage,  that  inde 
pendence,  that  respect  for  honor,  that  sense  of  duty, 
that  adherence  to  locality,  which  sustained  us  in 
the  hour  of  carnage,  and  in  the  after  silence,  when 
the  land  lay  in  ruins.  The  Byrds  were  all  possessors 
of  charming  personalities;  the  romance  of  Evelyn, 
so  constantly  the  source  for  novels,  and  the  regal 
largeness  of  Westover  are  not,  however,  sufficient  to 
disguise  certain  phases  which  bear  upon  the  funda 
mental  peculiarities  of  Southern  life.  For  this  rea 
son  alone  it  is  desirous  to  enter  upon  some  lengthy 
account  of  the  Byrds,  their  holdings  and  their  social 
state. 

Writers  lay  much  stress  upon  the  fact  that  the  land 


From  a  painting  owned  by  Miss  Stewart,  of  Brack  Hill.    Autograph  from  the  Virginia  Histor 
ical  Society.    Illustration  and  autograph  used  by  courtesy  of  Uoughton  Mifflin  Company. 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  67 

holdings  of  the  country  gentleman,  possible  only  where 
a  system  of  servitude  was  maintained,  aided  in  the 
creation  of  an  aristocratic  class  of  Southern  people. 
The  Stuarts,  after  the  Restoration,  encouraged  this 
exclusiveness  and  in  their  political  appointments  fa 
vored  those  who  were  most  comfortably  circumstanced. 
These  men  possessed  certain  ideals,  and  developed  a 
domineering  family  pride  that  assumed  the  right  to 
govern.  The  laws  regulating  the  distribution  of  land 
were  easily  evaded ;  the  first  rule  allotting  fifty  acres  to 
a  colonist  expanded,  and  by  1699,  the  Council  con 
ceded  the  right  to  buy  importation  privileges  for  the 
insignificant  sum  of  five  shillings.  Naturally,  estates 
increased  at  a  rapid  rate  and  so  likewise  did  slavery, 
for  white  labor  had  proven  a  failure  under  conditions 
which  allowed  the  indenture  to  expire  and  the  ser 
vant,  after  a  few  years,  to  become  a  land  holder.  The 
economic  condition  thus  forced  a  social  state,  and  the 
immediate  result  was  that  servitude  increased  and  the 
white  servant  or  wage  earner,  encumbered  by  the  re 
strictions  of  the  Virginia  law,  hastened  to  North  Car 
olina.  Virginia  might  receive,  as  she  did,  an  influx 
of  Cavaliers  boasting  good  blood,  but  what  was 
gained  at  the  top  was  naught  in  comparison  with  what 
was  lost  at  the  bottom.  The  Cavalier  was  soon  assim 
ilated;  the  debtor  after  serving  his  time  was  still 
looked  down  upon  in  Virginia,  so  he  found  it  easier 
to  face  life  anew  in  North  Carolina ;  the  servant,  freed 
from  bondage,  and  wanting  land  to  till,  found  the  tide 
water  district  already  overcrowded  and  so  had  to 
choose  between  the  rocky  and  unproductive  land,  for 
which  a  large  price  was  asked,  or  else  had  to  move 
away.  The  Virginian  therefore  moved,  land  being 
comparatively  cheap  in  North  Carolina ;  the  migration 
assumed  such  proportions  that  the  Board  of  Trade 
gave  the  matter  serious  consideration  in  1708.  With 
the  appearance  of  the  Byrd  family  in  1670,  the  popula- 


68    THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

tion  of  Virginia  was  a  fixed  quantity  and  received  no 
infusion  from  the  outside  until  1730,  when  the  Scotch- 
Irish  overran  the  Valley  of  the  Shenandoah. 

Unfortunately,  the  immediate  members  of  the  Byrd 
family  were  too  imbued  with  gentry  ideals,  were  too 
much  of  the  squire  class,  ever  to  become  independent 
of  the  mother  country.  In  their  instance,  we  may 
follow  the  growth  of  the  line  through  three  genera 
tions,  just  as  in  the  case  of  the  Lords  Baltimore,  ond 
we  may  trace  the  effect  of  a  system  of  living  that 
created  its  highest  point  of  brilliancy  in  William 
Byrd11,  and,  between  1670  and  1777 — a  little  more 
than  a  century,  which  marked  the  arrival  of  Byrd  l 
and  the  decadence  of  Byrd111  (who  was  with  Brad- 
dock  and  Washington,  whose  son  was  an  English 
captain  in  the  Revolution,  and  who  came  to  an  ig 
nominious  end  by  killing  himself) — showed  the  de 
fects  of  Virginia  life. 

The  position  of  William  Byrd1  was  defined  by  his 
maternal  grandfather,  Thomas  Stegg,  and  further  bet 
tered  by  his  uncle,  the  second  Thomas  Stegg.  Both 
men  had  wealth  and  colonial  standing,  which  served 
their  young  descendant  well.  When  Byrd  was  called 
to  assume  his  social  responsibilities,  he  took  unto 
himself  a  wife — daughter  of  a  Cavalier  soldier, 
who  had  hied  to  Virginia  to  escape  Puritan  rule, 
— and  settled  upon  his  uncle's  estate  of  1800  acres. 
He  immediately  began  to  manifest  that  keenness  for 
trade  which  made  him  not  only  a  powerful  merchant, 
but  also  a  shrewd  bargainer  with  the  Indians.  He 
may  have  been  limited  in  his  view  by  the  demands  of 
his  environment,  but  there  was  an  innate  sense  of  the 
practical  in  his  dealings,  evident  in  the  orders  he  sent 
to  the  Barbadoes  for  commodities,  slaves,  and  special 
laborers. 

In  public  life,  he  rapidly  rose  to  distinction.  But 
it  seems  that  he  never  allowed  civic  events  to  inter- 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  69 

fere  with  his  own  interests.  Despite  the  fact  that 
Berkeley  had  benefited  by  Stegg's  will, — being  a  friend 
of  the  family, — the  Governor  was  not  zealous  in  his 
desire  to  leave  good  enough  alone  as  to  the  trade  with 
Indians.  In  interfering,  he  thus  stirred  up,  or  rather 
hastened,  Bacon's  Rebellion,  which  enlisted  the  sym 
pathies  of  Byrd,  because,  no  doubt,  he  saw  future  cur 
tailment  of  his  trading  privileges.  But  no  sooner 
did  the  uprising  take  on  a  more  revolutionary  aspect 
than  he  hastened  to  resign,  in  no  way  harmed,  as 
far  as  public  opinion  was  concerned. 

He  had  the  instincts  of  the  monopolist,  as  was 
soon  after  evident  when  he  proposed  to  take  over 
all  the  privileges  of  trade  with  the  Indians,  assuring 
satisfactory  relations,  prompt  payment  of  tribute,  and 
thorough  surveying  of  unexplored  land.  In  this  re 
spect,  he  was  much  more  an  interested  party  than 
his  son,  who  later,  while  accumulating  properties,  did 
not  do  so  with  quite  the  same  selfish  grasp.  Notwith 
standing  his  bid,  however,  Byrd  was  defeated,  and  he 
saw  the  opportunity  of  curtailing  free  trade  once 
more  disappear  from  his  view. 

Always  alert  to  social  rank  and  pecuniary  benefit, 
he  next  sought  the  post  of  Auditor,  and  sailed  for 
England  to  bring  influence  to  bear  on  his  appoint 
ment.  The  title  was  not  free,  but  nothing  daunted, 
Byrd  speculated  and  made  a  deal  with  the  incumbent, 
whereby  he  was  to  share  the  post,  collecting  quit- 
rents  as  well  as  taxes,  which  were  paid  in  tobacco. 
The  constant  fluctuation  in  the  value  of  this  last  com 
modity  resulted  in  difficulties  with  the  Parson's  sal 
aries,  which,  as  history  indicates,  enlisted  the  initial 
powers  of  Patrick  Henry. 

Once  collected,  this  tobacco  was  sold,  the  conten 
tion  between  King  and  Council  resting  on  whether 
the  disposal  should  be  public  or  private.  Byrd's 
natural  trading  inclination  may  have  led  him  into 


70    THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

some  subtle  dealings  which  kept  his  accounts  from 
balancing,  but  notwithstanding,  his  general  character 
frees  him  from  any  grave  accusation.  Besides  which, 
he  continued  to  rise  in  position,  the  height  of  his  am 
bition — to  be  President  of  the  Council — becoming  real 
ized  shortly  before  his  death.  He  was  active  in  all 
public  matters,  and  we  notice  further  his  keen  interest 
in  the  contract  for  building  the  Chapel  of  William  and 
Mary  College. 

Wealth  in  the  colony  meant  a  corresponding  in 
crease  of  social  prestige.  Byrd  bettered  his  home  with 
every  betterment  of  his  business  interests,  finally  mov 
ing  to  Westover,  where  he  had  sent  from  abroad  the 
necessary  comforts  of  life.  When  he  ordered  his 
wine,  he  likewise  saw  to  it  that  he  was  commissioned 
to  supply  the  Council  with  the  same,  thereby  gaining 
in  the  whole  transaction.  Through  all  trade,  he 
moved  with  dignity — the  pride  of  a  land-owner, 
aware  of  the  primitiveness  of  the  country,  inasmuch 
as  his  daughters  were  educated  in  England.  One  of 
these  girls  became  the  wife  of  Robert  Beverley,  the 
colonial  historian. 

Byrd's  mind  was  always  fixed  on  increasing  his  es 
tate,  which  finally  grew  to  large  proportions,  beginning 
as  we  have  noted,  with  1800  acres,  and  totaling  26,231 
acres.  Much  of  this  represented  investment  on  trad 
ing  profits,  despite  the  difficulties  experienced  in 
importing  and  in  exporting,  as  well  as  the  difficulties  of 
storing  and  the  losses  consequent  thereon.  As  one 
historian  has  written  concerning  colonial  commerce : 
"  It  was  more  frequent  to  find  competition  among  the 
Virginians  to  get  shipping  facilities  than  among  the 
ships  to  get  freight."  The  land  system  was  so  in 
grained  in  Virginia,  that  any  move  to  give  the  middle 
man  a  chance  was  instantly  handicapped.  It  is  well, 
as  a  suggestion  of  Southern  deficiency,  to  note  that 
in  1691,  when  there  was  an  evident  desire  on  the 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  71 

part  of  some  to  encourage  the  building*  of  cities,  the 
rich  planter  ardently  opposed  any  legislation  to  that 
effect. 

In  character,  Byrd  was  genial,  which  added  a  cer 
tain  grace  to  his  business  proclivities.  It  is  neces 
sary  thus  to  record  his  life,  so  as  to  explain  the  in 
herited  traits  as  well  as  the  inherited  responsibilities 
which  add  to  the  picture  of  the  next  representative. 
When  the  father's  death  took  place,  after  a  number 
of  sorrowful  years  (bereft  of  daughters  and  wife,  and 
with  only  a  housekeeper  by),  every  worldly  possession 
was  bequeathed  to  the  son,  even  to  certain  local  posts. 
The  difference  between  the  two  was  one  of  degree 
rather  than  of  kind;  they  both  possessed  a  certain 
culture,  and  a  certain  practical  turn.  The  son  was 
by  far  more  devoted  to  culture,  studying  both  in  Lon 
don  and  in  Holland,  where  he  was  a  purchaser  of 
books,  which  afterwards  formed  part  of  the  valuable 
Westover  library,  famed  as  the  most  extensive  library 
at  the  time  in  the  colonies.  Evidently,  with  his 
mind  on  eventually  returning  to  Virginia  (where  he 
was  born  on  March  28,  1674),  he  paid  some  attention 
to  the  conditions  of  trade,  finally  entering  Middle 
Temple  to  study  law.  He  was  a  sociable  young  fel 
low,  a  quality  which  never  deserted  him.  As  evi 
dence  of  his  tenacity  of  spirit,  it  is  told  how,  when  a 
student,  in  1696,  he  became  close  friend  of  Benjamin 
Lynde,  who  was  to  be  Chief  Justice  of  Massachusetts. 
In  1736,  he  wrote  to  the  latter  in  jaunty  manner:  "  If 
I  could  persuade  our  captain  of  the  guard-ship  to  take 
a  cruise  to  Boston  at  a  proper  season,  I  would  come 
and  beat  up  your  quarters  at  Salem.  I  want  to  see 
what  alterations  forty  years  have  wrought  in  you  since 
we  used  to  intrigue  together  in  the  Temple."  He 
never  lost  his  English  outlook. 

When  Byrd  returned  to  the  colonies  in  1696,  he 
found  his  position  practically  fixed  for  him,  and  a 


72    THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

few  months  after  his  arrival  he  was  seated  as  mem 
ber  of  the  Assembly.  The  next  year  he  sailed  for 
England  to  represent  Andros  against  Blair,  a  cir 
cumstance  which  has  already  been  commented  upon, 
and  evidently  his  transactions  were  pleasing  to  his 
factions,  inasmuch  as,  in  1698,  he  received  the  further 
appointment  of  agent  for  the  colony,  a  post  which 
he  retained  until  1702.  There  was  an  amount  of  deli 
cacy  attached  to  the  office  which  Byrd  met  with  seem 
ing  tact  and  grace ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  the  King  was  brought  into  opposition 
with  him,  his  life  was  not  without  its  attractions  which 
his  genial  temper  made  the  most  of.  It  is  an  agree 
able  picture  we  obtain  of  his  social  and  literary  life. 
We  know  that  as  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  he 
read  a  paper  in  1697,  being  "An  Account  of  a  Negro 
Boy  that  is  dappled  in  Several  Places  of  his  Body 
with  White  Spots." 

In  1706,  Byrd  married  Lucy,  daughter  of  Gen 
eral  Daniel  Park,  inheriting  thereby  more  worldly 
goods.  Four  years  afterwards,  when  Spotswood 
reached  Virginia  as  Lieutenant-General,  there  began 
a  regime  which  showed  the  representative  of  the  Crown 
to  be  a  tenacious  advocate  of  royal  prerogative,  and 
hence  brought  this  power  in  conflict  with  the  rights  of 
the  Council.  For  the  latter  had  developed  within  them 
the  spirit  of  self-government,  and  Spotswood's  tight 
rein  only  served  to  make  more  evident  the  unity  of 
colony  sentiment  which  grew  later  into  a  force 
prompting  the  Revolution. 

Byrd  was  deeply  involved  in  the  struggle  with  the 
Lieutenant-General,  who  assailed  the  manner  in  which 
accounts  were  rendered  him  of  the  quit-rent  collec 
tions.  Perhaps  there  was  an  increasing  feeling,  on 
the  part  of  the  colonists,  that  the  Crown  was  unduly 
anxious  to  gather  unto  itself  the  moneys  which  should 
have  benefited  the  growing  community,  for,  in  1715, 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  73 

Byrd  was  in  England,  emphasizing  the  necessity  for 
using  the  quit-rents  to  make  "  home-improvements." 

It  is  not  our  province  to  record  the  bitter  antag 
onism  that  increased  between  Byrd  and  Spotswood, 
in  which  the  former  exhibited  his  tendency  to  sar 
casm.  He  opposed  another  attempt  to  monopolize 
Indian  trade,  a  condition  which  his  father  would  have 
welcomed,  having  himself  sought ;  he  opposed  any  en 
tertainment  of  the  prerogative  of  the  general  court 
by  the  acknowledgment  of  the  priority  of  the  King's 
prerogative.  In  all  of  this  opposition  we  recognize 
in  Byrd  no  loss  of  English  sentiment,  but  only  the 
emphasis  of  a  feeling  which  has  always  actuated  the 
English  since  the  days  of  the  Magna  Charta.  But 
during  all  this  feud,  the  personal  relations  between 
the  two  men  were  not  wholly  opposed,  although  they 
must  have  been  modified  somewhat  by  Spotswood's 
attempt  to  remove  Byrd  and  Blair.  Indeed,  it  was 
because  the  latter  feared  this  step  on  the  part  of 
the  Board  of  Trade,  that  he  eventually  gave  way 
before  the  persistent  assertion  of  the  Lieutenant-Gen- 
eral. 

Byrd  was  absent  from  the  colony  for  a  number 
of  years,  stretching  over  different  periods.  He  him 
self  acknowledged  that  his  country  life  partly  de 
stroyed  the  zest  which  London  had  formerly  conveyed 
to  him.  His  daughters,  the  famous  beauty  Evelyn, 
and  Wilhelmina,  were  being  educated  abroad  and 
in  1716,  his  wife,  suddenly  seized  with  smallpox,  died 
of  the  plague.  When  finally,  having  married  again 
in  1724,  he  returned  to  his  Virginia  estate,  he  settled 
down  to  the  regular  life  of  an  English  country  gentle 
man. 

Byrd  never  quite  relinquished  his  civic  activity,  and 
moreover,  his  brain  was  too  plastic,  too  sensitive  in 
its  flow  of  human  sympathy  to  remain  isolated  from 
the  general  movement  of  life.  It  was  after  1726  that 


74    'THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

his  literary  career  began,  for  it  must  be  remembered 
that,  historically,  the  boundary  disputes  between  Vir 
ginia  and  the  Carolinas  arose  in  1727.  Byrd's  useful 
ness  in  this  survey  kept  him  in  public  demand  until 
1736,  when,  at  the  age  of  sixty-two,  he  did  his  last 
official  work  for  the  colony. 

It  is  well  to  note  the  characteristics  of  Byrd  which 
made  him  popular  in  England  and  in  Virginia.  His 
/delicacy  of  taste  was  seen  in  the  well-ordered  slope  of 
his  grounds  to  the  river,  in  the  individual  interest  he 
gave  to  book-buying,  and  in  his  liking  for  pictures.  He 
was  a  product  of  his  age,  cursed  with  the  prevalent 
desire  for  land.  From  his  father,  he  inherited  an  in 
clination  to  speculate,  and  he  purchased  from  North 
Carolina  20,000  acres  which  he  called  "  The  Land  of 
Eden";  he  later  increased  his  estate  of  26,231  acres 
to  1 79,440  acres.  This  enormous  acquisition  was  partly 
obtained,  it  must  be  added  in  justice  to  Byrd,  for 
the  purpose  of  distributing  it  to  desirable  emigrants. 
When  he  died  on  August  26,  1744,  he  was  neverthe 
less  a  disappointed  man,  for  the  Crown  had  not  ade 
quately  recognized  his  services.  In  some  ways,  he  was 
in  advance  of  his  time,  for  he  congratulated  Ogle- 
thorpe  when  he  heard  that  negroes  and  rum  had  been 
excluded  from  Georgia.  Perhaps  he  uttered  a  South 
ern  sentiment  when  he  warned  Oglethorpe  to  beware 
of  the  "  Saints  of  New  England." 

It  is  an  agreeable  task  to  record  Byrd's  activity  as 
a  writer.  In  observation,  he  correlates  a  practical 
consideration  of  the  immediate  needs  with  an  acutely 
live  interest  in  the  humor  of  conditions.  Some  critics 
apply  the  term  "  sprightly "  to  his  style,  a  quality 
very  dominant  in  his  work.  But  there  was  some 
thing  more  than  that.  Let  us  acknowledge  that  his 
manner  is  somewhat  fraught  with  the  characteristics 
marking  Addison  and  Steele,  who  were  his  contem 
poraries  ;  let  us  also  claim  that  had  he  lived  wholly  in 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  75 

England,  this  sprightliness,  which  at  times  partakes 
of  the  quaint  nothing  of  Pepys  in  the  observation  of 
small  manners,  might  have  turned  to  the  same  lit 
erary  form.  Nevertheless,  however  English  in  feel 
ing,  however  contemporary  in  style,  his  form  of 
thought,  his  cast  of  observation,  his  reasoning  tend 
encies,  actuated  by  the  environment  rather  than  by 
the  time, — in  other  words,  his  activity  from  the  Vir 
ginian,  rather  than  from  the  English,  point  of  view  en 
title  him  to  be  regarded  as  much  of  a  Southerner, 
considering  the  initial  formative  force  of  colonial  in 
dividuality,  as  Franklin  was  an  American. 

Byrd's  idealism  was  fraught  with  a  full  realization 
of  practical  conditions.  It  was  his  very  ability  to  re 
veal  the  truth  in  human  fashion  that  enriched  his 
humor,  making  it  quaint,  na'ive,  piquant.  His  matter- 
of-fact  records  are  permeated  with  the  elements  of  a 
pure  comic  spirit  which  do  not  hide  but  enhance  the 
essential  details.  His  humor  is  never  unreasonable,  is 
never  gross ;  if  any  defect  is  to  be  found  in  it  at  all — 
a  defect  which  is  none  the  less  a  charm — it  rests  in 
a  childish  credence  which  is  shown  in  the  superstitions 
and  countless  marvels  reported  to  him. 

Byrd's  chief  literary  contributions  comprise:  (i) 
"History  of  the  Dividing  Line"  (1728),  written 
-from  manuscript  notes  taken  during  the  expedition; 
(2)  "  A  Progress  to  the  Mines  "  (1732);  and  (3)  "A 
Journey  to  the  Land  of  Eden"  (1733)  ;  to  these  may 
be  added  miscellaneous  letters  of  a  business,  social, 
and  family  character,  contained  in  the  "  Westover 
Manuscripts."  In  all  of  these  he  exhibits  a  wonder 
ful  understanding  of  the  relation  which  existed,  and 
which  should  exist,  between  the  people  and  the  soil. 
He  comprehended  the  defects  of  the  Southern  system, 
he  was  aware  of  the  benefits  of  husbandry,  he  pos 
sessed  an  accurate  discrimination;  he  was  indeed  a 
political  economist,  as  were  most  colonial  writers. 


76    THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

But  he,  likewise,  was  thoroughly  seasoned  with  the 
real  literary  sense,  while  the  value,  the  permanency 
of  his  good-natured  gibing  is  not  without  its  deeper 
intention  to  serve  as  a  moral  and  social  corrective. 
He  had  an  imagination  also,  one  which  could  carry 
an  event  beyond  its  immediate  occurrence,  which  could 
endow  incidents  with  a  human  potency;  that  is  why 
at  times  I  am  almost  tempted  to  say  that,  in  his  treat 
ment  of  animals,  he  may  be  considered  as  the  first 
American  Ernest  Thompson  Seton.  Certainly  he  is 
a  greater  lover  of  animals  than  Seton,  in  this  respect, 
perhaps,  being  closer  to  La  Fontaine. 

As  an  observer  during  the  North  Carolina  expedi 
tion,  Byrd  became  fully  aware  of  the  slothfulness  of 
his  neighbors;  unlike  Smith,  he  did  not  show  a  ready 
wit  in  suggesting  a  way  to  alter  this  indifference, 
but  it  is  evident  throughout  his  narrative  that  he  was 
aware  of  the  danger  which  lay  in  the  easy  response 
of  the  land ;  sometimes  the  people  would  "  take  more 
pains  to  Seek  for  Wild  Fruit  in  the  Woods,  than 
they  would  have  taken  in  tilling  the  ground."  Again, 
we  hear  him  saying  that  to  fell  a  tree  rather  than  to 
climb  it,  is  "the  Shortest  Way  (which  in  this  country 
is  always  the  best)."  His  eye  was  ever  quick  to 
see  the  lack  of  initiative  around  him,  the  desire  to 
escape  work  as  well  as  debts.  One  cannot  but  de 
tect  in  Byrd  a  certain  contemptuous  attitude  toward 
North  Carolina  colonists,  but  his  enthusiasm  rose  to 
poetic  heights,  drawing  from  his  ready  source  of 
literary  similes  and  metaphors  in  describing  the  nat 
ural  surroundings. 

A  few  pages  of  Byrd's  text  will  convince  the  reader 
that  he  had  a  remarkably  feeling  response  to  the  value 
of  words  in  description ;  this  only  comes  through  a 
certain  cultural  refinement,  and  through  innate  sen 
sitiveness  to  beauty  which  proclaims  to  a  degree  the 
artist.  We  meet  with  such  phrases  as  the  "  ex- 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  77 

quisitely  soft "  down  of  geese,  the  "  fear  of  growing 
too  tender,"  "  a  clear  sky,  spangled  with  stars,"  the 
"  charming  river,"  "  the  trees  grow  very  kindly,"  "  the 
purling  stream,"  trees  with  "  vines  marry'd  to  them, 
if  I  may  be  allow'd  to  speak  so  poetically."  At  one 
time,  they  passed  a  "  limpid  stream,  and  the  Murmur 
it  made,  in  tumbling  over  the  Rocks,  caus'd  the  Situ 
ation  to  appear  very  Romantick,  and  had  almost  made 
some  of  the  Company  Poetical,  tho'  they  drank 
nothing  but  Water." 

Another  characteristic  of  Byrd  is  that,  while  in 
many  respects  he  was  a  thorough-going  believer  in 
caste,  and  while  his  aristocratic  bearing  was  quite 
fitted  to  the  comforts  of  a  coach,  as  a  surveyor  or  a 
commissioner  of  survey  he  proved  himself  democratic, 
at  the  same  time  that  he  was  a  lover  of  the  open. 
It  is  not  surprising,  in  view  of  this,  to  find  him  re 
garding  natural  obstacles  as  an  excellent  means  of 
proving  one's  horsemanship. 

These,  we  believe,  represent  fairly  Byrd's  claim  to 
be  regarded  as  one  of  the  chief  colonial  writers  in 
the  South.  Not  only  does  he  paint  his  scene  agreeably, 
but  vividly ;  he  does  not  bore  one  with  too  much  tech 
nical  enumeration,  and  when  he  has  to  be  prosaic, 
his  style  is  too  unctuous  to  pall.  One  says,  after  dip 
ping  here  and  there — and  in  most  colonial  writing,  a 
reader  might  dip  with  advantage — that  the  writer 
has  the  ability  to  hold  attention  through  charm, 
through  a  love  and  relish  for  life  itself.  But  through 
out,  though  it  is  American  soil  he  praises,  Byrd  is 
still  the  Englishman,  however  much  an  English  col 
onist.  When  he  sees  the  Southern  mountains,  his 
thoughts  are  that  here  the  government  has  await 
ing  it  "  Natural  Fortifications  before  the  French." 
And  surely  no  more  patriotic  Fourth  of  July  could 
have  been  celebrated  than  the  King's  birthday,  ob 
served  in  the  wilderness ! 


78     THE    LITERATURE    OF    THE    SOUTH 

In  no  sense  ought  we  to  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that 
this  colonial  period  in  Southern  Literature  affords 
us  no  opportunity  of  placing  a  direct  value  upon  the 
writing  done  as  an  artistic  product;  the  spirit 
prompting  the  narrative  was  not  that  which  is  char 
acterized  as  love  of  adventure ;  it  was  purely  a  spirit 
prompted  by  utilitarian  needs.  But  whereas  we  have 
been  led  to  believe  the  Southern  colonist  an  adventurer 
only,  it  is  of  significance  to  note  that  these  early 
chronicles  were  nearly  always  prompted  by  a  definite 
desire  to  encourage  colonizers  on  the  one  hand,  and 
to  counteract  ill  reports  on  the  other.  In  view  of 
such  object  or  aim,  it  is  of  profit  to  measure  the  spon 
taneous  feeling  which  permeates  the  colonial  attitude 
—an  attitude  that  developed  a  love  of  soil,  a  realiza 
tion  of  what  was  best  for  those  attached  to  the  soil,  and 
a  gradual  pride  in  the  life  established  to  accord  with 
the  economic  and  social  life  fostered  by  the  soil. 
These  colonial  writers  were  ardent  defenders  of  their 
locality,  and  they  were  often  pushed  into  their  liter 
ary  undertakings  through  moral  recognition  of  their 
duty  to  their  environment. 

William  Stith,  the  historian  (1689-1755),  was 
such  a  man;  in  him  we  note  strongly  defined  an  in 
dependence  which  actuated  him  to  speak  openly,  in 
an  attempted  detached  manner — as  a  colonist  rather 
than  as  an  Englishman.  Of  worthy  family,  his  uncle 
being  Sir  John  Randolph,  he  himself  attained  the 
honored  position  of  President  of  William  and  Mary 
College,  after  which,  retiring  and  having  upon  his 
hands  much  leisure,  he  bethought  him  to  further  aid 
his  public  with  the  service  of  penning  "  The  History 
of  the  First  Discovery  and  Settlement  of  Virginia 
O^SS)-"  His  critical  sense  likewise  had  been  suf 
ficiently  sharpened  to  see  the  weakness  of  his  con 
temporary  sources,  and  in  all  of  his  work,  whether 
it  be  in  running  narrative  or  in  quoting,  he  exhibits 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  79 

a  particular  care  and  an  excellent  independence  of 
view.    For  he  writes,  to  take  a  typical  statement : 

"  As  for  King  James  I,  I  think  &  Speak  of  him, 
with  the  Same  Freedom  &  Indifferency,  that  I 
would  think  &  Speak  of  any  other  Man,  long  Since 
dead ;  &  therefore,  I  have  no  way  restrained  my  Stile, 
in  freely  exposing  his  weak  and  injurious  Proceed 
ings." 

His  zealous  care  to  reproduce  only  accuracy, 
led  him  to  desire  the  inclusion  of  numberless  papers 
of  curious  worth,  besides  original  excerpts  from  the 
records.  But  on  account  of  the  possibilities  of  his 
work  exceeding  one  volume,  when  the  danger  was. 
that  his  countrymen  might  have  to  pay  "  above  half 
a  Pistole,"  the  book  was  brought  to  a  close.  Not 
withstanding,  his  tone  was  sufficiently  outspoken  to 
note  the  spirit  of  revolution.  He  declares  in  his 
preface : 

"  If  we  have  a  Right  to  all  the  Liberties,  Franchises, 
and  Immunities  of  Englishmen,  .  .  .  what  Lib 
erty,  Franchise,  or  Immunity  is  dearer  or  more  essen 
tial  to  Englishmen,  than  to  be  Subject  to  Such  Laws, 
as  are  enacted,  and  to  be  liable  to  no  Taxes,  but  what 
are  laid  upon  them,  by  their  own  Consent,  in  a  Par 
liamentary  way  ?" 

When  we  discoursed  upon  William  Byrd's  point 
of  view  as  regards  the  province  of  North  Carolina, 
we  mentioned  John  Lawson  as  one  of  the  Commis 
sion  which  encountered  the  hardships  in  the  Di 
viding  Line  Survey.  It  is  very  natural  that  the  fol 
lowing  should  stand  to  his  credit :  "  A  New  Voyage 
ito  Carolina;  Containing  the  Exact  Description  & 
Natural  History  of  that  Country;  Together  with  the 
Present  State  thereof.  And  a  Journal  of  a  Thousand 
Miles,  Travel'd  thro'  Several  Nations  of  Indians,  Giv 
ing  a  particular  Account  of  their  Customs,  Manners, 
etc.  By  John  Lawson,  Gent.  Surveyor-General  of 


8o    THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

North  Carolina  (London.  Printed  in  the  year  1709)." 
As  an  address  to  the  Lords  Proprietors  of  the  colony, 
he  recommends  it  for  its  Truth,  "  A  Gift,"  he  adds, 
with  naivete,  "  which  every  Author  may  be  Master 
of,  if  he  will."  It  is  worth  noting  that  he  bemoans  the 
type  of  colonists  peopling  his  land,  for  the  traders 
are  possessors  of  "  slender  education,"  while  the 
French  show  their  wisdom  by  shipping  over  Clergy 
men  and  Gentlemen,  who,  with  a  larger  intellectual 
equipment,  are  better  able  to  judge  of  the  true  colonial 
conditions. 

Like  all  early  writers,  there  is  an  easy  confidence 
in  Lawson's  statements,  backed  as  they  were  by  a  trav 
eling  experience  of  eight  years.  There  is  no  attempt 
made  by  him  other  than  plain  statement,  which  to 
him  is  "  preferable  to  a  Smooth  Stile,  accompany'd 
with  Falsities  &  Hyperboles."  He  was  also  markedly 
disinterested  in  his  observation,  for  he  had  only 
been  in  this  country  since  1700,  during  which  year, 
while  in  Rome,  he  had  been  persuaded  to  turn  his  face 
to  the  West.  In  his  description,  in  the  minute  record 
ing  of  details,  he  in  no  wise  surpasses  others  who  have 
practically  covered  the  same  ground.  Yet  there  is  a 
decided  contrast  between  Byrd's  condescending  view  of 
North  Carolina  inferiority  and  the  bright,  hope 
ful  and  luxuriant  picture  sketched  by  Lawson.  The 
colonists  had  trained  eyes;  through  necessity,  through 
interest,  they  observed  everything  of  physical  and  social 
import;  that  is  why  the  work,  though  seeking  to  be 
unified,  is  largely  fragmentary,  and  as  typical  on  one 
page  as  on  another.  The  writers  viewed  things  with 
a  freshness  that  was  quite  as  much  due  to  their  new 
ness  as  to  their  nearness.  Lawson's  narrative  is 
largely  favorable;  he  pictures  the  lands  fruitful,  the 
planters  easy  and  hospitable,  the  rivers  spacious  and 
running  through  "  noble  Prospect."  His  enthusiasm, 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  81 

perhaps  too  colored,  often  reached  poetic  fervor,  as  in 
his  description  of  Sapona  River: 

"  This  most  pleasant  River  may  be  something 
broader  than  the  Thames  at  Kingston,  keeping  a  con 
tinual  pleasant  warbling  Noise,  with  its  reverberating 
on  the  bright  Marble  Rocks.  It  is  beautified  with  a 
numerous  Train  of  Swans,  and  other  sorts  of  Water- 
Fowl,  not  common,  though  extraordinary  pleasing 
to  the  Eye.  The  forward  Spring  welcom'd  us  with 
her  innumerable  Train  of  small  Choristers,  which 
inhabit  those  fair  Banks;  the  Hills  redoubling,  and 
adding  Sweetness  to  their  melodious  Tunes  by  their 
Shrill  Echoes.  One  side  of  the  River  is  hemm'd  in 
with  mountaing  Ground,  the  other  Side  proving  as 
rich  a  Soil  to  the  Eye  of  a  knowing  Person  with  us, 
as  any  this  Western  World  can  afford." 

The  historical  student  will  discern  throughout  the 
colonial  writings  a  feeling  of  local  pride  that  often 
overflowed  into  a  most  pronounced  form  of  criticism. 
Byrd  did  not  hesitate  to  offer  his  opinion  of  the  state 
of  North  Carolina,  and  in  the  case  of  Georgia  and 
South  Carolina,  Alexander  Garden  did  not  hesitate 
to  condemn  the  proceedings  of  George  Whitefield, 
who  from  the  moment  of  his  arrival  in  the  province 
of  Oglethorpe,  upset  the  established  canons  of  re 
ligion,  and  himself  opposed  the  restrictions  placed 
upon  negro  slave  employment.  The  physical  con 
dition  of  the  soil  demanded  black  labor  in  Georgia; 
pressure  was  brought  to  bear  upon  the  subject,  with 
the  idea,  as  Whitefield  himself  wrote  to  the  Trustees, 
December  6,  1748,  "that  Georgia  never  can  or  will  be 
a  flourishing  province  without  negroes  are  allowed." 
It  was  a  case  of  proving  to  the  Trustees  that  black 
labor  was  superior  to  white,  especially  as  the  time 
service  of  the  whites  was  either  expiring  or  not 
being  fulfilled.  Therefore,  in  1741,  Whitefield  se- 


82     THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

cured  land  in  Carolina  which  he  called  "  Providence," 
and  worked  it  with  negro  labor,  announcing  his  in 
tention  of  supporting  his  Orphan  House  at  Bethesda, 
Georgia,  with  the  proceeds;  in  this  establishment  he 
did  some  of  his  most  striking  charitable  work. 

Alexander  Garden  (1685-1756)  figures  in  the  op 
position  against  Whitefield ;  he  was  a  man  of  pro 
nounced  learning  and  piety,  and  his  literary  activity 
was  purely  of  a  religious  trend.  Reaching  America 
as  rector  of  St.  Philip's,  Charleston,  he  likewise  as 
sumed  the  position  of  Commissary  of  the  Bishop  of 
London  for  the  two  Carolinas,  Georgia,  and  the  Ba 
hama  Islands.  This  was  in  1720,  so  that  by  1740, 
when  he  haled  Whitefield  before  the  ecclesiastical 
court  in  Charleston  for  violations  of  the  canons  of  the 
church,  he  was  sufficiently  established  in  public  favor, 
as  well  as  in  church  power,  to  urge  Whitefield's  sus 
pension.  During  1740,  he  wrote  six  letters  against 
Methodism,  and  his  sermons  likewise  were  aimed  in 
the  same  direction.  From  the  literary  point  of  view, 
the  contents  of  these  writings  can  largely  be  passed 
over;  it  is  only  necessary  to  glance  cursorily  through 
one  as  an  indication  of  the  spirit  moving  the  South 
Carolina  divine.  The  South  in  its  religious  history  was 
more  overwrought  by  the  sectarian  movement  than 
the  North,  which  was  predominantly  under  the  influ 
ence  of  Puritanism.  One  of  the  essential  differences 
between  the  Upper  and  the  Lower  South  is  found  in 
the  solidarity  of  the  Church  of  England  throughout 
the  former  and  the  disintegrating  forces  of  sectarian 
ism  in  the  latter,  which  resulted  in  a  diversity  of  sec 
tarian  schools,  and  in  a  consequent  weakening  of  gen 
eral  education. 

But  to  return  to  Garden,  who  may  well  be  charac 
terized  by  a  letter  written  to  a  third  party,  concerning 
Whitefield  and  his  Orphan  House.  Naturally  his  view 
is  a  prejudiced  one  and  likewise  an  incensed  one; 


COLONIAL   PERIOD  83 

it  represents  fairly  well  the  alarm  caused  by  the 
advent  of  Methodism*  in  the  South,  a  movement 
contemptuously  styled  "Franticks"  by  its  opposers. 
The  value  of  Garden  to  us  is  that  by  his  temper  he 
measures  one  of  the  social  forces  which  marked  the  de 
velopment  of  the  colonial  South.  Indeed,  as  he  says, 
there  were  bitterness  and  virulency  in  abundance,  and 
if  Whitefield  hurled  denunciations  upon  the  Church 
of  England,  finding  Garden  in  his  way,  he  must  have 
used  all  the  energy  in  his  power  to  set  public  opinion 
against  him. 

Garden  may  have  repented  the  strong  flavor  of  his 
anathemas  against  Methodism,  but  his  conscience  up-» 
held  him  in  his  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  over  the 
worldly  position  of  Whitefield.  If  he  turned  the  court 
upon  the  offender,  it  was  not  the  first  time  recalcitrant 
clergymen  had  been  brought  before  him  on  far  lesser 
charges.  Garden's  tone  is  sufficiently  exemplified  in 
the  following  quotation: 

"  As  to  the  State  of  Religion  in  this  Province,  it 
is  bad  enough,  God  knows.  Rome  and  the  Devil 
have  contrived  to  crucify  her  'twixt  two  Thieves,  In 
fidelity  and  Enthusiasm.  The  former,  alas !  too  much 
still  prevails ;  but  as  to  the  latter,  thanks  to  God,  it 
is  greatly  subsided,  &  even  on  the  Point  of  vanishing 
away.  We  had  here  Trances,  Visions,  &  Revelations, 
both  'mong  Blacks  &  Whites,  in  abundance.  .  .  . 
Bad  also  is  the  present  State  of  the  Poor  Orphan 

*  The  Methodist  movement  in  the  South  may  here  be  traced, 
since  the  Rev.  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  together  with  White- 
field,  settled  in  Georgia,  Savannah  being,  as  the  historian  Stevens 
says,  "  one  of  the  birthplaces  of  Methodism."  He  sailed  for 
Georgia  on  December  28,  1737,  with  his  friend,  James  Haber- 
sham,  the  latter  name  preserved  in  the  Lanier  family.  The 
Orphan  House  is  described,  with  illustration,  in  Stevens'  "  His 
tory  of  Georgia"  (vol.  i,  p.  309  scq.,  ed.,  1847)  ;  see  Whitefield's 
"  Journals  and  Letters,"  also  Philip's  "  Life  and  Times  of  the 
Reverend  George  Whitefield." 


84    THE    LITERATURE   OF   THE    SOUTH 

House  in  Georgia ;  that  Land  of  Lies,  &  from  wch  we 
have  no  Truth,  but  what  they  can  neither  disguise 
nor  conceal.  The  whole  Colony  is  accounted  here  one 
great  L — e  from  the  beginning  to  this  Day;  &  the 
Orphan  House,  you  know,  is  a  Part  of  the  whole — 
A  scandalous  Bubble  ! " 

This  local  sense  of  criticism  is  more  pointed  and 
more  splenetically  seen  in  the  case  of  Patrick  Tail- 
fer  and  his  associates,  who  set  up  a  strong  opposition 
to  the  mandates  of  Oglethorpe,  and  who  poured  upon 
the  latter  the  sarcasm  of  a  bitter  pen.  The  indelible 
impress  of  a  man  of  violent  temper  has  stamped  the 
private  character  of  Tailfer;  he  was  once  convicted 
of  murdering  a  servant,  the  coroner  proving  his  case, 
but  the  law  was  not  rigorous,  and  so  he  escaped.  In 
all  matters  pertaining  to  civic  life  he  was  a  disturb 
ing  element,  acting  at  times  independently  of  authority. 
On  such  an  initiative,  he  brought  upon  him  the  oppo 
sition  of  Oglethorpe.  For  when  Tailfer,  during  1739, 
raised  a  company  of  militia  apart  from  the  colonial 
forces,  yet  thereafter  demanded  that  he  and  his  men 
be  recognized  officially,  the  authorities  failed,  in  fact 
refused,  to  do  so. 

General  Oglethorpe's  refusal  to  meet  this  demand 
led  to  Tailfer's  departure  from  Savannah  for  Charles 
ton,  where  he  became  associated  with  Anderson  and 
Douglas, — all  three  Scotchmen, — and  likewise  be 
came  involved  in  the  disputes  which  were  soon  man 
ifest  between  Georgia  and  South  Carolina.  Such  irrita 
tion,  due  to  the  uneven  bestowal  of  colonial  authority, 
was  just  the  opportunity  Tailfer  wanted,  and  if  his 
biographer  is  correct — a  biographer,  it  is  to  be  noted, 
who  relies  on  the  journals  of  Stephens  who  was, 
together  with  Oglethorpe,  the  target  for  his  shafts  of 
dissatisfaction — he  set  himself  pointedly  "to  cater  to 
popular  feeling." 

We  thus  have  no  agreeable  figure  to  deal  with  in 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  85 

Patrick  Tailfer,  nor  was  he  one  to  base  his  argu 
ments  or  his  spirit  on  any  sound  evidence ;  rather  was 
he  one  to  resort  to  sarcasm  as  a  means  of  misrepre 
sentation.  In  fact,  it  has  been  truly  written  of  his 
published  account  that  "  the  veiled  personalities  which 
it  tolerates,  but  evince  the  cowardice  and  the  meanness 
of  the  detractor."  His  dedication  was  addressed  to 
Oglethorpe,  in  itself  a  deeply  thought-out  scheme  to 
make  more  poignant  the  force  of  his  scarcely  hidden 
innuendoes ;  the  tone  is  mean  and  the  matter  is  hardly 
new,  although  its  aggressiveness  is  interesting  because 
of  its  combativeness ;  it  likewise  is  local,  and  territorial 
differences  in  the  colonies  were  marked.  The  whole 
title  runs :  "  A  True  and  Historical  Narrative  of  the 
Colony  of  Georgia  in  America,  from  the  first  Settle 
ment  thereof  until  this  present  period:  containing  the 
most  authentic  facts,  matters  and  transactions  there 
in  :  together  with  his  Majesty's  charter,  representa 
tions  of  the  people,  letters,  and  a  dedication  to  his  ex 
cellency  General  Oglethorpe.  By  Pat.  Tailfer,  M.  D., 
Hugh  Anderson,  M.  A.,  Da.  Douglas,  and  others, 
Landowners  in  Georgia,  at  present  in  Charleston, 
South  Carolina." 

The  treatise  is  conceived  from  the  angle  of  vision 
that  reveals  the  sore  spots  in  the  colonial  development 
of  Georgia;  it  is  a  view  of  conditions  in  a  fair  land 
that  would  be  fair  indeed,  were  there,  at  the  head, 
men  who  could  grapple  with  things,  men  who, 
unlike  Oglethorpe,  were  not  satisfied  with  their  own 
mismanagement.  The  contention  was  chiefly  that  the 
General  was  denying  his  colony  those  liberties  which 
bring  with  them  rapid  and  healthy  growth.  "  You 
have  afforded  us  the  opportunity  of  arriving  at  the 
integrity  of  the  primitive  times,  by  entailing  a  more 
than  primitive  poverty  on  us."  Such  is  a  fair  example 
of  the  recriminations  and  accusations. 

As  his  subject  progresses,   Tailfer  confesses   that 


86     THE    LITERATURE    OF    THE    SOUTH 

indignation  swells  within  him;  Oglcthorpe  is  not,  to 
him,  the  strong  man  of  the  hour,  but  the  weak  man 
of  the  irrelevant  hour,  a  politician  who  confuses  the 
full  significance  of  his  prerogative.  Tailfer  is  very 
particular  not  openly  to  be  brazen,  but  his  attitude  is 
that  of  the  apologist  on  the  floor  of  Parliament  or 
the  Senate;  he  is  bitter,  vindictive,  and  only  for  that 
reason  is  he  particularly  interesting.  The  literary 
student  of  Tailfer  must  satisfy  himself  with  the  tone 
of  the  written  work  generally ;  not  establish  the  meas 
ure  of  his  correctness  from  the  historical  view-point. 
As  a  pure  matter  of  local  color,  it  interests  him  to 
measure  by  the  historical  fact,  how  much  cause  there 
was  for  indignation.  When  a  man  persistently  at 
tacks  the  illegal  methods  of  the  magistrates,  when  he 
is  confident  of  the  betterment  of  the  colony  after  the 
people  are  allowed  their  rightful  privileges,  it  is  hard 
for  the  historian  to  ignore  the  popular  feeling  which 
underlies  the  motive,  the  initiative. 

Tailfer  was  an  agitator  in  colonial  letters;  he  was 
a  muck-raker,  if  you  will,  but  more  in  the  spirit  of 
pique  than  of  whole-souled  investigation.  He  was 
against  Oglethorpe  and  showed  no  willingness  to 
do  aught  but  prove  the  situation  "melancholy." 
Treaties  were  made  only  with  worthless  Indians ;  while 
the  restrictions  on  negro  labor,  the  prohibition  of  rum, 
the  unwise  division  of  land — all  these  only  increased 
colonial  limitations. 

Literarily,  the  Colonial  Period  produced  nothing 
large  in  the  South;  it  did  not  even  establish  the  liter 
ary  tone  which  might  have  marked  the  Southern 
spirit,  as  Puritanism  undoubtedly  marked  New  Eng 
land  and  gripped  it  in  fact  till  after  the  Civil  War. 
In  the  North,  the  pulpit  produced  a  mass  of  material, 
practical  in  part,  but  chiefly  directed  toward  the  spir 
itual  welfare.  The  Southern  writers  were  largely  land 
exploiters,  whose  aim  was  somewhat  akin  to  that 


COLONIAL    PERIOD  87 

adopted  by  commercial  organizations  eager  to  open 
up  and  develop  an  unfrequented  region.  The  genera 
tions  of  writers  we  have  thus  far  dealt  with,  were  in 
no  intensive  way  attached  to  the  soil;  their  minds 
were  not  molded  under  the  influence  of  new  en 
vironment.  As  Englishmen  they  came  to  see,  and  as 
Englishmen  they  wrote. 

But  no  man  can  resist  judging  of  acts,  of  events, 
by  their  effect  upon  a  narrowed  territory;  slowly 
there  crept  into  the  make-up  of  the  colonial  English 
man,  the  attitude  of  the  community  man  who  would 
govern  at  home  rather  than  be  governed  from  a  dis 
tance.  This  note  comes  in  flashes  in  the  so-called  liter 
ature  of  the  period ;  so  does  the  spirit  of  resistance. 
The  type  of  Southern  writing,  the  type  of  Southern 
man,  had  not  as  yet  become  clearly  defined.  But  not 
withstanding,  the  Southern  conditions  were  growing 
more  marked,  socially,  sociologically,  and  economic 
ally,  as  we  have  seen  in  our  preliminary  survey  of 
early  social  forces. 


II 

REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD 


* TABLE  OF  AUTHORS 

ORATORS,  STATESMEN,  BIOGRAPHERS,  HISTORIANS,  PAMPHLETEERS, 
POETS 

1724-1761  ....     REV.  SAMUEL  DAVIES     ....     Virginia 

1724-1792 HENRY  LAURENS    .     .     .  South  Carolina 

1732-1794  ....     RICHARD  HENRY  LEE     ....     Virginia 

1732-1799  ....     GEORGE  WASHINGTON     ....    Virginia 

1736-1799 PATRICK  HENRY Virginia 

1740-1792 ARTHUR  LEE       Virginia 

1742-1779  .     .     .     WILLIAM  HENRY  DRAYTON     .  South  Carolina 

1743-1826  ....       THOMAS  JEFFERSON       ....     Virginia 

1749-1815  .     .     .     .     .     DAVID  RAMSAY     .     .     .  South  Carolina 

1751-1836 JAMES  MADISON Virginia 

1755-1835 JOHN  MARSHALL Virginia 

1756-1818 HENRY  LEE Virginia 

1758-1824  ....       CHARLES  PINCKNEY     .     .  South  Carolina 

1760-1825  .     .     .       PARSON  MASON  WEEMS       .     .     .     Virginia 

1766-1827  ....     JOHN  DRAYTON.  (S.)     .     .  South  Carolina 

1772-1834 WILLIAM  WIRT Virginia 

1773-1833 JOHN  RANDOLPH Virginia 

1787-1837 HENRY  LEE Virginia 

t  POETRY 

1747-1825 JAMES  McCLURG Virginia 

1748-1816  .     .     .    HUGH  HENRY  BRACKENRIDGE  .     .     .Maryland 

1752-1828  ....      ST.  GEORGE  TUCKER      ....    Virginia 

1793  J.   W.   HEWLINGS Virginia 

1775-1825  ....      WILLIAM  MUNFORD      ....    Virginia 

1787-1825 RICHARD  DABNEY Virginia 

*  Incidental  mention  is  made  of  John  Rutlcdge,  Edmund  Ran 
dolph,  George  Mason,  Edmund  Pendletpn,  Christopher  Gadsden, 
George  Wvthe,  Peyton  Randolph,  Richard  Bland,  Benjamin 
Harrison,  William  Pinkney,  Theodore  Bland  (1732-1792).  Other 
names  that  should  be  considered  are  Joseph  Galloway,  Joachin 
Zubly,  Jonathan  Boucher,  Daniel  Dulany;  in  connection  with 
this  section,  vide  John  Dickinson. 

t  Note  other  minor  poets,  such  as  Giles  Julap,  Mrs.  Ritson, 
Paul  Henkel,  Judith  Lomax,  Daniel  Bryan,  Dr.  John  Wharton, 
Col.  Robert  Munford,  Redrap  llowcll. 


CHAPTER  IV 
SOCIAL  FORCES 

LIFE  IN  THE  SOUTH  ;  A  CONSIDERATION  OF  THE 
PLANTATION;  A  PICTURE  OF  THE  LANDED  PRO 
PRIETOR  AND  THE  STATE  OF  His  CULTURE. 

THE  civilization  of  the  South  is  stamped  indelibly 
upon  the  character  of  the  Southern  people.  However 
in  the  future  it  may  be  changed  by  the  substitution 
of  newer  forces,  which  point  to  broader  economic 
and  social  conditions,  that  civilization  will  always  be 
a  fact  which  it  were  useless  to  ignore.  The  people 
are  as  distinctive  as  the  soil  which  first  made  them  an 
agricultural  section ;  their  individual  isolation  was 
encouraged  by  the  isolation  of  the  landed  estates,  of 
the  large  plantations;  their  social  bearing  which 
measured  the  bearing  of  the  English  gentry 
was  not  a  severance,  but  a  continuation  of  Eng 
lish  tradition ;  their  church,  their  justice,  their  laws 
of  inheritance — the  right  of  primogeniture — their 
manners,  their  habits  of  mind  were  simply  trans 
planted.  The  Southern  plantation,  it  would  not  be 
too  much  to  claim,  was  a  suburb  of  the  city  of  Lon 
don,  with  the  Atlantic  as  a  tedious  thoroughfare  con 
necting  the  wharves  of  Liverpool  or  London  with  the 
wharves  along  the  Chesapeake — a  suburb  without  the 
activity  which  is  induced  by  proximity. 

The  examination  of  original  documents  and  state 
papers  will  indicate  to  a  full  degree  the  slow  growth  of 
the  Englishman's  estimate  of  liberty  into  the  Ameri 
can's  idea  of  independence.  Virginia  alone,  long  be- 

91 


92     THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

fore  ever  Patrick  Henry's  voice  was  heard,  had  zeal 
ous  regard  for  the  rights  of  the  subject  throughout 
her  colonial  history.  The  literature  of  the  settlers  is 
marked  by  two  attitudes :  that  of  the  observer,  noting 
the  advantages  and  disadvantages,  the  familiar  and 
unfamiliar  marks  of  mere  external  environment,  and 
that  of  the  settler,  commenting  upon  himself  in  relation 
with  the  soil,  and  planning  a  policy  for  the  betterment 
of  his  status  as  a  permanent  resident  away  from  home. 
The  Revolution,  among  its  many  beneficent  effects, 
had  two  prime  results:  it  turned  America  from  colo 
nial  dependencies  into  the  potential  nation ;  it  awak 
ened  England  to  the  necessity  for  a  democratization  of 
her  colonial  system  whereby  Australia  is  now  in 
possession  of  Home  Rule.  It  likewise  made  a  corre 
sponding  impress  upon  the  minds  of  the  people,  and 
produced  a  literature  of  restiveness,  of  exhortation,  of 
passionate  expression  called  forth  by  the  fire  of  the 
moment.  It  was  a  war  literature,  wherein  the  art  was 
secondary  to  the  human  force  that  prompted  it.  The 
orator  is  the  transitory,  meteoric  genius  of  the  South ; 
his  written  word,  full  of  dignity  and  force — whether 
of  soundness  or  of  narrow  vision,  whether  prophetic 
or  false — afterwards  lost  the  quickening  fire  of  de 
livery,  of  personal  contact.  A  large  body  of  this 
literature,  therefore,  rich  in  value  for  the  historian, 
may  be  summed  up  generally  for  its  artistic  worth. 

By  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  the  South  was  well 
defined  in  its  civilization,  although  cotton  had  not  yet 
claimed  the  land,  or  raised  the  economic  value  of  the 
slave.  We  shall  see  what  concentrating  effect  the  po 
litical  cast  of  Southern  economic  history  had  upon 
the  mind  of  the  orator,  after  the  Lower  South  began 
to  be  defined,  and  after  the  admission  of  states  threat 
ened  to  upset  the  equilibrium  of  congressional  repre 
sentation.  But  the  distinction  of  class,  the  home  life, 
the  isolated  instances  of  brilliant  city  life,  centered 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  93 

around,  and  in  accordance  with  the  customary  bril 
liancy  of  the  royal  governor,  the  intellectual  limita 
tions,  the  educational  difficulties,  are  all  to  be  found 
recorded  in  the  literary  attempts  of  the  day. 

The  life  in  the  South,  no  matter  from  what  point 
of  view  we  approach  it,  was  homogeneous  in  all,  save 
population;  the  history  of  a  church,  of  a  family,  of  a 
plantation,  of  a  parish,  of  a  county,  exhibits  the  self 
same  features  that  on  one  hand  gave  it  richness  and 
on  the  other  proclaimed  its  weakness.  The  atmosphere 
of  such  a  life  pervades  every  institution  fostered  by 
Southern  conditions ;  Thomas  Nelson  Page  insists  upon 
much  of  the  charm  of  this  past  in  his  novels,  stories 
and  papers,  but  the  weakness  of  his  stories  represents 
the  weakness  of  that  life  he  depicts,  the  lack  of  con 
trasts,  the  sentiment  that  thrives  on  languor  where 
the  mind  is  classic  rather  than  progressive.  We  could 
approach  that  colonial  life  as  he  does  in  his  volume, 
"  The  Old  South,"  by  gathering  all  the  antique  refer 
ences  and  fusing  them  together  with  a  sufficient  stream 
of  historical  facts.  Such  travelers  as  he  quotes  from 
freely, — the  Reverend  Andrew  Burnaby  and  M.  Le 
Chevalier  de  Chastellux,  for  example — call  attention 
to  those  features  known  to  all  of  us  under  the  inclusive 
expressions  of  Southern  manners,  Southern  hospitality, 
Southern  charm.  It  is  easy  to  state  in  set  terms  the 
pride  of  the  first  families  of  Virginia,  their  graces, 
extravagances,  and  excesses,  but  these  are  only  units 
of  a  larger  whole  which,  to  be  grasped,  must  be 
viewed  from  within  the  life  itself. 

Speaking  of  "  Two  Old  Colonial  Places,"  Mr.  Page 
mentions  the  receptions  held  in  the  home  of  the  Nel 
sons  "  at  which  have  gathered  Grymeses,  Digges,  Cus- 
tises,  Carys,  Elands,  Lees,  Carters,  Randolphs,  Bur- 
wells,  Pages,  Byrds,  Spotswoods,  Harrisons  and  all 
the  gay  gentry  of  the  Old  Dominion."  This  tendency 
to  treasure  with  a  big  and  generous  heart  the  contact 


94    'THE    LITERATURE    OF   THE    SOUTH 

of  family  with  family,  of  name  with  locality,  has  per 
sisted  from  earliest  times ;  it  is  distinctive  of  the  gentry 
feeling,  detected  not  only  in  the  social  life,  but  in  the 
direct  activity  of  the  church.  And  it  was  not  without 
some  cause  that  the  Southern  gentleman  treasured  the 
traditions  of  his  household ;  any  of  the  Virginia  names 
we  take  with  an  idea  of  tracing  the  lineal  descent,  of 
recording  the  intellectual  activity,  will  present  a  mas 
sive  canvas  of  political  learning  and  aristocratic  in 
dividualism.  The  social  life  offered  every  opportun 
ity  to  become  despotic  rather  than  paternalistic.  The 
Southern  statesman  of  Revolutionary  days  framed  his 
ideas  within  the  shadow  of  Roman  law  and  classic 
tradition.  Nearly  every  name  meant  service  of  su 
perior  merit  in  the  interests  of  the  commonwealth ; 
there  were  generous  impulses,  keen  analytical  judg 
ment,  obstinacy  based  on  earnest  persuasion — above 
all,  force  of  character,  and  determinate  characteristics 
which  in  themselves  would  have  won  the  right  to  com 
mand  even  if  the  social  regime  had  not  made  the 
leadership  inevitable.  One  has  to  read  only  in  a 
casual  manner  to  wonder  at  the  rich  constructive  mind 
that  emanated  from  Virginia,  the  solid  figures  of 
leaders,  who,  as  the  pastor  of  Bruton  Church  pointed 
out,  sat  within  range  of  the  Governor's  pew,  indeed 
served  as  vestrymen.  These  men  who  represented 
the  life  of  the  South  were  to  become  endorsers  of 
declarations  and  adopters  of  constitutions,  national 
and  state. 

It  would  not  be  very  sweeping  to  assert  that  the 
South,  until  the  period  of  Reconstruction,  was  deter 
mined  by  tobacco,  cotton,  and  slavery;  this  means  that 
one  needs  must  reckon  with  the  physical  advantages 
which  hastened  these  forces  in  their  several  directions. 
Virginia  dominated  over  North  Carolina  because, 
geographically,  she  was  so  situated  with  her  navigable 
streams  as  to  reap  the  natural  benefits.  It  was  in 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  95 

Virginia  that  the  political  cast  of  the  Southern  people 
was  determined,  adhering  at  first  to  that  local  self-gov 
ernment  which  was  to  a  considerable  extent  inter 
woven  with  the  official  aspect  of  the  church.  The 
parish  had  a  territorial  distinction  as  well  as  a  spiritual 
one,  clearly  distinguished  in  the  case  of  the  warden's 
duties  during  the  colonial  days  in  Virginia.  For  Dr. 
Charming  has  shown  that  the  parish  with  vestry  and 
wardens  was  the  commencement  of  government  in  the 
tidewater  district.  As  we  have  already  suggested  at 
some  length  in  our  discussion  of  the  land  system,  in 
which  are  to  be  traced  the  seeds  of  Civil  War,  "  the 
great  result  of  colonial  evolution,"  to  use  the  words  of 
Dr.  Ballagh,  "  was  economic  sectionalism "  which 
determined  the  later  political  inclination  of  the  people. 

The  fundamental  ideas  of  the  law  among  the  early 
statesmen  were  based  on  English  precedence.  The 
political  privilege  was  valued  according  to  the  neces 
sity  for  holding  that  privilege  to  insure  the  protection 
of  landed  interests.  In  this  distinction  lay  the  rever 
sal  of  types.  The  constructive  statesman,  with  his 
philosophical  ideas  concerning  the  rights  of  the  in 
dividual  state,  in  a  confederation  of  states,  was  turned 
into  a  destructive  statesman  whose  policy  was  deter 
mined  by  immediate  protection  of  the  economic  life 
founded  on  a  weakness  which,  in  his  heart  of  hearts, 
the  Southerner  knew  was  a  hindrance  to  any  commer 
cial  enterprise. 

The  land  system  determined  the  produce  and  the 
labor;  the  caste  system,  marked  the  grades  of  social 
life.  The  lack  of  any  commercial  activity  resulted  in 
a  consequent  lack  of  the  trading  class,  and  of  the 
centers  which  in  New  York  and  Massachusetts  and 
Pennsylvania  encouraged  the  intellectual  and  scien 
tific  interests.  Whatever  connection  there  was  be 
tween  the  Virginia  planter  and  his  London  merchant 
resulted  in  extravagance,  waste,  and  material  loss  to 


96    THE    LITERATURE    OF    THE    SOUTH 

the  plantation;  for  the  transporting  was  expensive  and 
precarious,  the  tobacco  fluctuating-  in  value,  the  plant 
ers'  accounts  never  balanced  and  most  generally  over 
ran.  In  1695,  one  planter  wrote  to  his  factor:  "I 
desire  you  Sr.  to  send  my  Account  Currant  by  the  first 
ships  and  send  me  two  or  three  duplicates  for  fear  of 
miscarriage,  for  not  knowing  how  my  Account  stands, 
I  dare  not  send  for  goods  though  my  wants  are  very 
great  and  pressing."  This  credit  system  hung  over 
the  Southern  plantation  for  many  years ;  it  fostered  in 
the  minds  of  an  aristocratic  society  a  contempt  for 
trade  which  found  an  outlet  in  a  contempt  for  the  New 
England  trader.  They  did  not  realize,  in  their  aloof 
stronghold,  that  such  pride  in  the  individual  was  con 
sequent  upon  the  rural  community  in  which  he  lived. 
Try  as  he  might  to  frame  laws  whereby  towns  could 
be  created,  he  did  not  at  first  see  that  town  life  meant 
a  compact  civilization  which  his  was  not,  and  could 
not  be  while  he  persisted  in  his  economic  methods. 

For  an  instant,  let  us  imagine  the  life  in  the  South 
at  the  time  of  the  Revolution.  The  planter,  with  his 
inherited  position  of  country  squire,  in  whom  was 
vested  some  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  land — a  pictur 
esque  figure  at  the  county  court-house — was  possessor 
of  large  tracts  of  land,  and  was  dependent  upon  slaves. 
The  black  man,  in  his  capacity  as  worker,  was  appor 
tioned  in  two  classes,  the  field  "  hand "  being  under 
the  direct  supervision  of  the  overseer,  the  domestic 
servant  attending  to  the  personal  wants  of  the  house 
hold.  Whatever  the  evils  of  slavery,  its  restrictive 
influence  over  the  negro  did  much  to  make  it  possible 
on  the  one  hand  for  him  to  become  attached  to  the  soil, 
and  on  the  other  hand  for  him  to  improve  in  his 
general  welfare. 

The  system  of  paternalism  had  its  immediate  effect 
on  the  domestic  servant.  The  early  Southern  novelists 
descant  upon  the  "  gray-haired  coachman,"  the  old 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  97 

major-domo,  or  "body  servant/'  and  the  corpulent 
black  mammy  in  the  same  vein  of  endearment;  they 
are  depicted  as  types  of  a  life  rather  than  as  human  be 
ings;  they  are  artificially  described.  Indeed,  it  is  as 
tonishing  to  note  how  recent  has  been  the  ability  of  the 
Southern  writer  to  grasp  the  real  characteristics  of 
the  negro,  giving  him  human  qualities  rather  than 
mere  distinctive  characteristics.  Mrs.  Eliza  Wilkinson 
in  Revolutionary  days,  Poe  in  a  later  period,  attempted 
negro  dialect  with  humorous  results.  It  was  only 
after  the  Civil  War  that  the  darkey  took  his  natural 
place  in  literature;  till  then  his  portrait  was  sure  to 
be  stagy,  however  sentimentally  treated. 

It  is  true  that  the  negro  was  thrust  upon  a  civi 
lization  unconsciously  ready  to  receive  him.  He  did 
not  become  a  fixture  without  elements  of  opposition 
interfering,  and  it  is  essential  to  note  thus  early  the 
feeling  of  race  integrity  which  demanded  the  ascend 
ency  of  the  whites.  As  the  negroes  increased  in  num 
bers,  the  laws  applying  to  them  were  more  stringent; 
protection  became  essential,  for  bondage  was  the  only 
safety  against  the  black  man  whose  savage  instincts 
were  not  yet  curbed,  who  knew  not  the  meaning  of 
honor,  of  right,  of  justice,  of  the  inviolable  law  of 
sex.  In  the  preservation  of  race  integrity,  the  bar 
riers  were  so  strong  as  to  prevent  any  radical  rectifica 
tion  of  race  deficiencies.  The  negro's  word  before 
the  law,  as  evidence  against  the  white  man,  was  dis 
counted;  his  own  trials  were  often  done  in  haste  and 
at  a  time  when  he  could  best  be  spared  from  the  fields ; 
his  marriages,  in  the  colony  of  North  Carolina  for 
example,  were  consummated  with  little  ceremony, 
oftentimes  without  a  priest ;  and,  in  rare  instances,  the 
sacredness  of  the  bond  was  ignored  by  the  master,  in 
his  desire  to  raise  the  child-birth  on  his  plantation  and 
to  increase  his  slave  stock. 

The  negro  practically  filled  the  needs  of  the  labor 


9S     THE    LITERATURE    OF    THE    SOUTH 

problem;  the  Indians  were  a  source  of  menace  to  the 
colonists,  not  a  channel  of  help;  the  indentured  white 
servants  filled  only  the  letter  of  their  papers,  escaping 
the  yoke  as  soon  as  possible.  Slavery  was  the  one 
prime  source  of  labor  for  the  planter,  and  the  slave's 
bondage  was  made  more  secure,  notwithstanding  the 
religious  sects  that  believed  in  his  freedom.  The  time 
was  not  far  distant  when  the  pulpit  would  proclaim, 
in  the  face  of  the  negro's  legal  disqualifications,  the 
Bible  basis  for  his  social  rank. 

There  were  three  other  classes  below  the  planter, 
which  economically  looked  to  the  large  plantation.  The 
poor  white  with  his  truck  patch,  through  the  necessities 
of  his  living  and  the  barrenness  of  his  association  as 
well  as  through  his  removal  from  any  contact  with  the 
opulence  and  refinement  of  the  aristocracy,  was  dis 
tinguished  by  a  rough,  uncouth  exterior  which  even 
affected  the  manner  of  his  speech.  This  may  have 
been  due  in  part  to  the  character  of  the  emigrant  class 
pushed  from  the  fertile  land  of  the  tidewater  districts. 

The  life  presented  great  contrasts  of  class;  in  that 
respect,  the  population  was  neither  compact  nor  homo 
geneous,  but  on  the  other  hand  it  was  picturesque  to  a 
high  degree.  Wherever  a  throng  gathered,  it  was  a 
motley  crowd,  presenting  no  middle  point  of  contact, 
no  average  community  of  interest.  The  aristocrat, 
even  in  his  excesses,  remained  still  the  aristocrat.  A 
biographer  of  John  Randolph,  exhibiting  the  narrow 
prejudices  of  his  education,  in  speaking  of  his  sub 
ject's  hard  drinking,  found  a  saving  grace  in  the  fact 
that  Randolph  "  scarcely  ever  drank  with  the  illiterate 
or  vulgar  at  all,"  adding,  in  a  tone  that  impressed  one 
with  the  doubtful  instincts  of  the  gentleman,  that 
this  reticence  was  observed  "  even  during  the  highest 
electioneering  times." 

The  old-fashioned  novelist  has  "  fixed  "  the  atmos 
phere  of  that  period;  if  it  be  a  church  scene,  one 


REVOLUTIONARY  9  PERIOD  99 

knows  that  the  squire  will  doze  under  the  influence 
of  the  parson's  brawl;  that  in  all  places  of  high  stand 
ing-,  whether  in  court,  at  the  governor's  ball,  at  the 
tavern,  in  his  house,  where,  using  the  stereotyped 
phrase,  "  the  table  groaned,"  he  was  the  dominant 
figure  by  right  of  his  family  connections  as  well  as 
of  his  holdings.  Cooke,  in  describing  him,  speaks  of 
"  the  generous,  dogmatic,  prejudiced,  courteous,  im 
posing  old  worthy  "  whose  "  opinions  upon  political, 
religious,  and  social  subjects  have  long  since  been 
made  up."  Around  such  a  figure,  the  whole  signifi 
cance  of  plantation  life  whirled ;  upon  him  rested  the 
care  of  dependent  people,  from  the  slaves  of  his  fields 
to  worthless  relatives  who,  in  their  indolence,  were 
unfailingly  ready  to  impose  upon  his  proverbial  hos 
pitality  through  an  appeal  to  his  family  pride. 

Such  a  life  was  doomed  to  create  a  certain  placid, 
somnolent,  intellectual  satisfaction;  it  was  an  estab 
lished  life,  impervious  to  innovations.  The  parson,  with 
his  fixed  ritual,  railed  against  the  dissenting  voices 
of  Wesley,  Fletcher,  and  Whitefield;  these  sects  that 
sprung  up  outside  the  barrier  of  episcopacy,  sounded 
bold  and  daring.  In  the  person,  for  example,  of  the 
Rev.  Samuel  Davies  (1724-1761),  the  intensity  of  the 
dissenting  voice  became  a  symbol  of  the  danger  which 
threatened  the  majority,  in  the  presence  of  "the  new 
light."  Indeed,  it  was  such  a  character  as  this  parson 
which  was  instrumental  in  pressing  the  Toleration 
Act.  The  occasion  of  preaching  was  a  terrible  respon 
sibility  in  the  hands  of  Davies ;  he  was  an  orator,  a 
master  of  speech  with  full  knowledge  of  law,  civic 
and  ecclesiastical.  He  possessed  the  intrepidity  of  a 
James  Blair,  with  none  of  the  special  limitations  of 
the  Established  Church;  his  intellect  was  restive  and 
fearless ;  he  stood  in  awe  of  God  only,  refusing  "  to 
talk  nonsense  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,"  rebuking 
George  II.  openly  to  that  monarch's  face,  preaching 


ioo     THE   LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

religion  and  patriotism  to  the  soldiers.  He  was  a 
keen  estimator  of  ability,  and  perhaps  was  one  of  the 
first  to  forecast  the  greatness  of  Washington. 

Church  service  in  colonial  days  was  a  point  of  con 
tact  for  the  people  of  isolated  homes.  Sundays  and 
court  days  brought  them  together.  John  Davis, 
traveling  through  the  country  around  1798-1802, 
wrote:  "A  Virginian  churchyard  on  a  Sunday 
resembles  rather  a  race  ground  than  a  sepulchral 
ground;  the  ladies  come  to  it  in  carriages,  and  the 
men,  after  dismounting  from  their  horses,  make  them 
fast  to  the  trees.  But  the  steeples  to  the  Virginian 
churches  were  designed,  not  for  utility  but  ornament ; 
for  the  bell  is  always  suspended  to  a  tree  a  few  yards 
from  the  church." 

The  social  life  of  the  plantation  was  not  meager; 
the  talk  ranged  from  Addison  to  thoroughbreds  and 
fox  hunting;  with  the  old  English  idea,  the  holiday 
seasons  were  festive  occasions  for  lavish  hospitality, 
in  which  all  the  servants  shared,  for  the  child  of 
the  white  man  played  freely  with  the  darkey,  practic 
ing  upon  him,  without  demur  from  him,  certain  minia 
ture  authority  which  was  based  on  imitation  of  a 
deeper  thing.  The  squire's  coach  rolled  from  estate 
to  estate,  usually  flanked  by  some  gallant  attendant 
upon  some  belle  of  the  Dominion,  whose  heart  was  as 
vivacious  as  the  slipper  that  gaily  tripped  the  reel. 

But  as  regards  society  at  the  capital,  so  fairly  esti 
mated  in  Cooke's  "Virginia  Comedians,"  there  must 
have  been  considerable  incongruity  between  the  imi 
tation  of  court  splendors,  represented  in  the  noble 
ambitions  of  the  King's  representative,  the  royal  gov 
ernor — and  the  ordinary  dwellings  which  graced  the 
main  streets  of  Williamsburg.  The  South  was  rural, 
but  to  the  capital  there  flocked  the  wealthy  families 
in  accordance  with  the  most  approved  entrance  into 
London.  Yet;  according  to  authorities,  the  dwellings 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  101 

were  ordinary  and  not  commensurate  in  splendor  with 
the  dressing  of  the  ladies  and  gentlemen.  To  some 
extent,  the  general  spirit  of  existence  was  romantic, 
for  around  these  little  centers  there  still  reigned  the 
mystery  of  the  unknown  forest.  It  was  possible,  un 
der  such  conditions,  for  Spotswood,  in  1716,  to  enter 
the  valley  of  the  Shenandoah,  after  the  manner  of  a 
new  King  Arthur,  and  establish  among  his  horsemen 
an  order  of  the  Golden  Horseshoe.  Here,  in  this  little 
town  of  Williamsburg,  concentrated  the  culture  of  Vir 
ginian  life — the  college,  the  theater,  the  governor's 
palace,  all  after  the  manner  of  a  transplanted  civiliza 
tion.  They  read  Wycherley  and  Congreve  in  those 
days,  they  upheld  the  eminence  of  Addison,  Pope  and 
Dryden.  The  play  induced  the  youthful  dandy  to  flirt 
with  and  ogle  the  players,  himself  seated,  as  at  home, 
upon  the  elementary  stage.  The  Virginian  was  a  gay 
theatergoer  in  Williamsburg ;  the  students  of  William 
and  Mary  College  presented  pastorals,  and  gave  com- 
mendably  a  performance  of  "  Cato,"  even  reciting  on 
occasions  in  the  presence  of  the  Governor.  Crusty  Sir 
William  Berkeley  turned  playwright  himself  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  long  before  the  first  professional 
players  made  their  appearance  in  the  colonies.  Wash 
ington  kept  up  the  traditions  of  his  ancestors  in  his 
liking  for  the  theater. 

One  might  pass  over  the  educational  system  with 
a  slight  reference  to  its  English  bearing  on  one  hand, 
and  to  its  aristocratic  appeal  on  the  other.  But  its 
early  evidences  are  interwoven  with  the  social, 
economic,  and  spiritual  aspects  of  the  life.  While  it  is 
true,  as  far  as  statistical  and  fact  accuracy  are  con 
cerned,  that  the  South  has  always  been  heedlessly  mis 
represented,  the  mere  fact  of  the  numbers  of  schools, 
libraries,  and  newspapers  in  the  South  is  no  great  evi 
dence  that  they  in  any  way  measured  the  true  culture 
of  the  period.  South  Carolina  had  a  free  school  as 


102    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

early  as  1710;  bequests  were  being  made  in  1721  for 
educational  purposes;  in  1733  the  parish  was  main 
taining  its  school-house,  and  legislative  acts  were  at 
tempting  to  encourage  the  spread  of  schools  in 
isolated  districts.  But  despite  the  schools  and 
academies,  in  the  face  of  private  instruction  either 
from  the  parson  who  most  generally  became  attached 
to  the  household,  or  from  the  pedagogue,  the  edu 
cation  found  in  early  Charleston  was  of  foreign  cast ; 
such  men  as  Pinckney,  Drayton,  and  Gadsden,  who 
dominate  the  pages  of  Revolutionary  history  in  South 
Carolina,  went  abroad  to  be  educated.  The  Virginians 
even  found  it  advisable  to  desert  William  and  Mary 
College  and  go  to  Princeton  into  a  brisker  atmosphere, 
almost  invariably  returning  to  see  whether  they  could 
not  have  their  legal  training  under  the  profound  guid 
ance  of  Chancellor  George  Wythe,  .who  trained  Mar 
shall,  who  had  Clay  as  his  helper,  who,  according  to 
Wirt,  could  bestow  upon  one  "  the  crown  of  legal 
preparation."  This  was  a  time  when  America's  great 
men,  largely  Virginians,  were  in  the  bud. 

But,  in  truth,  a  decided  advantage  is  to  be  had  in 
laying  stress  upon  certain  cultural  features  which  in 
dicate  clearly  that  the  colonial  Southerner  or  the  pre- 
revolutionary  Southerner  was  not  wanting  in  a  liter 
ary  taste  or  in  an  art  instinct.  There  was  a  pro 
nounced  atmosphere  of  mental  refinement  in  the  city 
of  Charleston  where,  as  an  English  traveler  of  the 
time  recorded,  the  genteeler  sort  of  people  are  pretty 
well  bred,  especially  the  men,  for  this  same  agreeable 
flatterer  of  his  feminine  readers  in  England  adds: 
"The  ladies  in  general  (very  few  excepted)  are  not 
tolerably  handsome,  for  most  of  them  have  Pale,  Sick- 
ish,  Languid  Complections,  and  are  commonly  ill- 
shaped,  their  shoulders  seeming  to  have  a  longing  de 
sire  to  rise  high  enough  to  hide  their  ears,  and  in  their 
Conversation  they  have  a  disagreeable  drawling  way 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  103 

of  speaking,  which  is  no  Advantage  to  help  make  up 
for  their  Persons."  In  such  manner  was  the  Southern 
accent,  distinctive  of  the  Carolinas,  summarily  rejected. 
One  detects  in  such  irritability  the  attitude  of  an  Eng 
lish  traveler  who  fully  realized  the  spirit  of  determined 
opposition  which  actuated  the  war. 

Hugh  S.  Legare  makes  a  statement  in  his  "  Essay 
on  Classical  Learning,"  which,  put  by  the  side  of  the 
early  system  of  education  as  pursued  in  William  and 
Mary  College,  points  to  the  necessity  of  a  sound  educa 
tion  being  sought  for  outside  of  the  rural  communi 
ties;  he  claimed  that,  due  to  English  schooling, 
Charleston  excelled  in  its  polite  literature  and  its 
standards  of  taste ;  the  religion  of  the  Church  of  Eng 
land,  Latin  and  Greek  constituted  the  backbone  of 
local  instruction;  this  was  practically  all  the  colonial 
schoolmaster  had  at  his  command.  In  1712,  some 
seven  years  after  the  employment  of  the  first  teacher 
in  North  Carolina,  a  school  was  established,  in  which 
the  children  soon  showed  they  could  read  and  write 
and  speak  intelligently  upon  the  principles  of  Christian 
doctrine.  But,  try  as  they  would,  the  schools  in  the 
Southern  states  could  not  compass  the  requirements 
of  a  general  education,  in  addition  to  which,  the  aris 
tocratic  barrier  was  so  raised,  the  economic  discrimina 
tion  was  so  apparent,  as  to  prevent,  save  in  exceptional 
cases,  any  but  the  wealthier  classes  from  preparing 
for  the  higher  walks  of  life.  As  compared  with  the 
North,  the  South  in  number  of  schools,  in  the  distri 
bution  of  newspapers,  in  the  establishment  of  libraries, 
was  not  so  wanting  as  the  historian  would  make  be 
lieve. 

But  where  one  labors  under  the  disadvantages 
of  such  a  social  system  as  that  out  of  which  the  South 
of  ante-bellum  days  was  evolved,  one  is  liable  to  find 
even  the  newspapers  cutting  aloof  from  the  world  at 
large,  and  local  in  interest  unless  sectional  in  demand. 


104    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

The  editor  of  the  next  era  was  more  anxious  to  sup 
port  his  opinion  than  to  bring-  to  his  readers  news  re 
garding  the  activity  of  the  outside  world.  The  orator 
therefore,  despite  the  presence  of  the  newspaper,  was 
the  real  disseminator  of  opinion.  A  study  of  educa 
tional  beginnings  involves  a  consideration  again  of  the 
migration  of  religious  sects  in  the  South,  for  the 
Church,  both  established  and  dissenting,  supported 
school-houses,  and  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of 
the  Gospel  was  instrumental  in  starting  the  library 
system  in  North  Carolina.  As  early  as  1676,  the 
evidence  of  wills  attests  the  existence  of  valuable  books 
among  the  colonists,  one  of  which  could  boast  the 
possession  of  a  Geneva  Bible.  In  Charleston,  the  in 
habitants  were  forming  clubs  for  the  exchange  of 
literature  received  from  home.  The  founder  of  the 
Society  just  mentioned  established  thirty-nine  libraries, 
a  veritable  colonial  Carnegie,  with  a  parochial  in 
fluence  in  mind.  The  religious  missionaries  did  much 
in  this  way  to  disseminate  a  desire  to  read ;  they 
were  constantly  applying  for  new  books  to  be  sent 
them,  and  by  their  example  others  followed  in  their 
wake. 

Even  as  Byrd  at  Westover  gathered  together 
volumes  which  measured  the  extent  of  his  contact  with 
the  world  of  belles  lettres,  so  a  companion  of  his  in  the 
North  Carolina  Boundary  dispute,  one  Mr.  Moseley, 
who  did  much  to  advance  education  and  religion, 
gathered  together  a  rich  collection  which  he  be 
queathed  for  public  benefit.  Other  libraries  were  be 
gun  as  early  as  1673  in  North  Carolina,  the  list  of 
books  clearly  indicating  the  gentry  taste,  and  a 
familiarity  with  English  literature  which  showed  men 
more  closely  in  touch  with  book  culture,  as  Mr. 
Weeks  so  aptly  states,  than  the  average  politician  of 
to-day,  with  all  his  educational  and  social  opportuni- 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  105 

ties.  The  Southern  colonist  when  he  read,  and  I  cite 
the  example  of  James  Iredell  as  instance,  took  up  his 
"  Tristram  Shandy,"  his  "  Clarissa  Harlowe,"  his 
Fielding,  as  though  he  were  still  near  London,  and  he 
had  his  preferences,  his  literary  prejudices,  feasting 
upon  "  The  Rambler,"  "  The  Tatler,"  Rowe,  Montes 
quieu,  and  Rousseau,  as  well  as  quoting  Pope  and 
Cowper.  He  was  a  devotee  of  essays,  history  and 
politics;  he  had  pronounced  opinions  on  the  classics 
and  Massinger,  Otway,  and  the  Restoration  litera 
ture.  When  the  Strolling  Players  in  1768  entered 
North  Carolina,  "  The  Spanish  Friar  "  was  found  by 
one  colonial  dame  at  least  to  be  too  strong  for  her 
feminine  taste. 

Not  only  was  the  settler  among  the  wealthy  classes 
far  from  ignorant,  his  mental  scope  being  solid,  but  in 
vestigation  has  brought  to  light  the  character  of  the 
portraits  that  hung  upon  his  walls.  Canvases  by  Sir 
Joshua  Reynolds,  Gainsborough,  Copley,  and  Stuart 
were  in  possession  of  many  a  Carolina  family.  Thus, 
imagination  has  much  to  work  upon  in  picturing  the 
state  of  the  landed  proprietor's  culture.  Yet  not 
withstanding  the  fair  comparison  of  the  South  with 
New  England  in  this  matter  of  the  establishment  of 
the  vehicles  of  education,  there  was  a  lack  of  vital 
impetus  throughout  the  vast  territory  that  lay  be 
tween  such  rare  centers  as  Charleston  and  Wil- 
liamsburg.  The  mental  capacity  of  the  Southerner 
was  concerned  with  something  far  different  from 
imaginative  graces;  in  fact,  the  literature  of  the  pre- 
Revolutionary  period  throughout  the  country  partook 
of  the  same  character.  In  New  England,  as  in  Vir 
ginia  and  Carolina,  the  same  species  of  writing  was 
done.  The  genius  of  the  time  was  not  the  poet,  al 
though  poetry  was  published,  not  the  novelist,  not  the 
traveler,  but  the  orator,  awakened  to  a  new  destiny. 


io6    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

The  literature  was  born  of  the  times,  and  in  the 
South  it  went  beyond  the  limitations  of  its  environ 
ment,  for  as  yet  there  was  naught  outside  to  jeopardize 
the  civilization  within,  to  impose  upon  whatever 
literary  expression  might  exist,  the  necessity  of  pro 
tecting  the  local  institutions  peculiar  to  its  soil. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE    CONSTRUCTIVE    STATESMAN 
FROM   WASHINGTON  AND  JEFFERSON  TO  MARSHALL 


THE  Revolutionary  writer  was  an  orator  and  a 
statesman,  an  orator  in  that  through  his  appeal  and 
remonstration  he  developed  in  men's  minds  the  neces 
sity  for  political  separation  from  England,  a  states 
man  for  the  reason  that  he  foresaw  the  necessity  for 
a  close  affiliation  of  states  which  at  first  resulted  in 
Confederation  and  afterwards  in  Union.  If,  during 
the  crucial  period,  there  was  any  opposition  to  the 
idea  of  a  closer  bond  between  the  separate  communi 
ties,  it  came  from  New  England  rather  than  from  the 
South. 

The  literature  of  the  Revolution  assumed  many 
forms,  all  actuated  by  the  same  spirit  of  protest,  op 
position,  and  appeal.  Man's  energy  was  directed 
toward  preserving  the  rights  of  Englishmen,  be 
queathed  him  by  the  Magna  Charta.  In  extenuation 
of  Jefferson  as  a  conservative  statesman,  in  defense 
of  his  Declaration  which  has  so  often  been  discounted 
because  of  its  generalizations  and  its  suggested  French 
idealism,  Fiske  emphasizes  an  evident  distinction  be 
tween  the  Rousseau  doctrine  of  the  natural  rights  of 
man,  and  the  political  rights  of  yeomen  and  gentry, 
as  yet  more  British  than  American.  Whatever  prec 
edent  was  cited  by  the  colonist  found  root  in  the 
mother  country. 

107 


io8    THE   LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

The  body  of  our  political  writing,  therefore,  divides 
itself  into  two  main  classes:  separation  and  union. 
If,  as  Dr.  Sears  seems  to  think,  "  the  resources  of  argu 
ment,  persuasion,  and  appeal  in  political  and  state 
papers,  had  been  well  nigh  exhausted  "  by  the  time  of 
actual  resort  to  arms,  an  epoch  of  interpretation,  of 
construction,  was  soon  to  follow.  In  vain  might  one 
desire  some  political  adjustment  which  would  over 
come  the  estrangement,  but  a  community  sense  had 
been  developed  in  the  struggle  which  no  arbitration 
could  satisfy.  It  was  the  very  necessity  for  an  in 
digenous  body  of  precedents  that  added  to  the  great 
ness  of  Marshall,  and  enlisted  his  very  keenest  legal 
analysis.  But  it  is  significant  that  even  thus  early 
there  was  a  type  of  old  lawyer  in  Virginia,  who  looked 
somewhat  askance  at  the  headstrong  actions  of  a 
Patrick  Henry,  such  men  as  Wythe,  Pendleton  and 
Peyton  Randolph.  An  estimator  of  the  character  of 
the  statesman  of  this  epoch  will  perhaps,  in  his  analy 
sis,  account  for  deviations  from  the  individual  types 
with  the  change  in  political  conditions  and  problems. 
No  doubt  the  rise  of  the  Lower  South  did  much  to 
effect  this  change,  but  there  is  small  room  for  specula 
tion  that,  traditionally,  Calhoun,  Stephens,  Toombs, 
and  Yancey  founded  their  positions,  however  widely 
removed,  upon  this  more  philosophical  statesmanship. 
How,  in  the  midst  of  an  ultra-aristocratic  community, 
such  broad  attitudes  should  be  foremost,  where  the 
planter  possessed  what  Professor  Trent  terms  the 
agricultural  and  bourgeois  cast  of  mind,  is  probably 
due  to  the  fact  that  in  the  cases  of  Washington,  Jeffer 
son,  and  Henry,  they  were  slightly  removed  westward 
from  the  extreme  tidewater  region,  and  exercised  a 
freer  mind  by  very  right  of  their  pioneer  positions. 

Most  of  the  writings  of  these  men  belong  to  his 
tory,  not  to  literature;  they  are  essentially  products  of 
active  men  who,  under  pressure  of  state  affairs,  wrote 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  109 

as  they  thought,  with  little  time  for  grace,  but  speak 
ing  with  force  and  authority.  These  men  wrote  of 
things  occurring,  hardly  of  things  in  the  past;  their 
perspective,  therefore,  is  all  the  more  wonderful,  giv 
ing  to  their  imagination,  which  in  this  respect  is  closely 
allied  with  the  historic  sense,  a  large  value.  In  fact, 
such  a  mind  is  to  be  estimated  not  as  part  of  literary 
record,  except  in  so  far  as  enriching  the  mental  char 
acter  of  the  man,  and  as  modifying  his  taste. 

The  Revolutionary  statesman  in  most  cases  left  a 
large  body  of  letters,  state  papers,  and  orations;  in 
them  one  is  able  to  detect  the  myriad  facets  of  his  per 
sonality.  As  a  man,  he  is  to  be  taken  in  relation  with 
his  staid  training,  his  culture,  and  his  private  life;  as 
a  public  servant,  he  is  to  be  judged  by  his  attitude,  his 
acts,  and  thus  the  author  becomes  simply  a  means 
toward  an  end  of  adequate  expression.  Of  all  the 
so-called  statesmen,  Jefferson  is  the  one  who  may  be 
said  to  have  striven  for  literary  renown;  this  was  in 
part  due  to  the  fact  that  nature  had  not  fitted  him 
for  an  orator,  and  so  his  pen  pursued  its  facile  way, 
given  to  extravagancies  of  expression.  It  is  the  per 
sonal  note  that  lends  charm  to  the  letters  and  docu 
ments  preserved,  wherein  is  unfolded  the  fullness  of 
men  coming  in  touch  with  young  life,  and  having  a 
new  world  to  move  in.  They  were  all  human,  with 
a  deep  love  of  the  domestic,  which  phase  always  brings 
forward  dominant  features  in  the  estimate  of  the  men 
themselves — the  religious  intensity  of  Henry,  the 
practical  surety  and  providence  of  Washington,  the 
natural  love  of  Jefferson,  even  the  paternalistic 
courtesy  of  the  impetuous  Randolph. 

These  men  were  trained  on  a  solid  basis ;  they  dealt 
with  present  things;  they  ordained  for  the  future. 
Having  dragged  the  colonial  neck  from  a  parlia 
mentary  noose,  each  commonwealth,  independent, 
though  weak  in  numbers,  and  though  sympathetic 


i  io    THE   LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

in  proximity  and  in  similar  political  imminency  with 
its  neighbor,  was  not  in  a  mood  to  foster  another  gov 
ernment  whose  strength  would  overshadow  the  rights 
of  an  individual  state,  which  it  soon  declared  itself  to 
be.  The  statesmen,  therefore,  developed  in  an  at 
mosphere  of  intense  conviction,  based  on  small  if  any 
precedence.  The  rural  life  of  the  separate  counties 
added  to  their  leadership  and  recognized  the  strength 
of  the  strong  men.  When  these  figures,  solid  in 
proportion,  and  rich  in  the  color  of  their  portraiture, 
were  not  guiding  events,  they  were  estimating  the 
men  who  were  their  associates,  and  the  biographies 
which  they  wrote,  valuable  because  of  first-hand  im 
pressions  and  of  sympathy  with  environment  and  sub 
ject,  ring  with  conviction,  and  in  the  instance  of 
Marshall's  "  Life  of  Washington,"  become,  uncon 
sciously,  political  autobiographies  of  themselves. 

The  recalcitrant  mood,  the  persuasive  intensity,  left 
little  room  for  the  aesthetic  impulse;  the  cast  of  mind 
was  judicial,  the  education  began  with  the  classics 
and  ended  with  the  law.  In  the  case  of  Henry,  the  in 
tensifying  of  legal  knowledge  came  after  his  general 
grasp  of  the  subject — a  grasp  astounding  for  its  variety 
rather  than  convincing  because  of  its  intensive  solid 
ity:  in  after  years,  his  dramatic  instinct,  ripened  by 
an  absorptive  method  which  put  him  mentally  into  pos 
session  of  every  essential  of  a  needed  subject.  Men 
concentrated  on  law  in  those  days;  even  in  the  social 
life  they  never  escaped  the  atmosphere;  the  forensic 
contests  had  some  element  of  the  theatrical  in  them, 
force  pitted  against  force,  and  attractive  on  both  sides 
because  vital  to  the  people  on  both  sides. 

The  Southern  statesmen  were  generally  subjected 
to  the  same  training;  they  were  associates  in  conven 
tions,  and  together  they  broke  bonds,  made  laws,  re 
vised  statutes,  and  then  retired  to  their  separate 
estates,  drawing  upon  their  memories  for  reminis- 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  in 

cences.  The  American  historian  has  not  yet  escaped 
the  small  misstatement  due  to  some  superficial  feeling, 
but  which  nevertheless  tended  to  distort  motive. 
This  similar  training  serves  to  place  the  Revolutionary 
constructive  statesmen  on  the  same  plane  of  general 
culture.  Before  any  Constitution  became  the  parent 
of  Federalist  and  anti-Federalist  parties,  the  angle  of 
primal  vision  alone  was  determining  the  difference 
between  one  orator  and  the  other.  Some  were  slow 
in  their  progress;  others,  like  John  Rutledge,  were 
meteoric.  They  graduated  from  school  into  law  of 
fices,  from  there  into  the  army,  called  afterwards  to 
their  state  legislatures,  and  afterwards  to  be  sent  to 
the  Continental  Congress,  and  to  the  Convention  for 
the  Federal  Constitution.  They  became  Governors  of 
their  infant  states,  were  re-elected,  assumed  the 
dignity  of  Chief  Justices.  To  whatever  post  they  were 
called,  they  overflowed  the  limits  of  the  office,  and  ac 
complished  distinctive  work. 

There  is  a  legitimate  doubt  in  the  minds  of  most 
critics  as  to  how  far  this  statesmanship  may  be  called 
distinctively  Southern,  it  was  so  general  in  its  bearing. 
In  the  matter  of  religious  freedom,  of  negro  slavery, 
of  constitution  framing,  they  are  to  be  accounted 
national.  The  wisdom  of  Washington  which  was  the 
genius  of  Washington,  born  of  the  time  rather  than 
of  the  locality,  at  least  ripened  and  mellowed  under 
Southern  conditions;  the  force  of  individualism  fos 
tered  by  a  graded  society  developed  the  quickening 
elements  of  leadership.  In  Henry  one  detects  certain 
opposition  to  a  nationalistic  move,  which  was  precau 
tion  rather  than  prejudice,  a  sentiment  which  later 
brought  about  the  amendments  to  the  Constitution. 

However  brilliant,  however  sound,  oratory,  liter- 
arily,  was  the  drawback  of  the  Southern  author. 
Nearly  all  expression  was  measured  in  terms  of  elo 
quence,  and  while  the  printed  speeches  afterwards 


ii2     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

bore  evidence  of  conviction  and  reasoning,  none  of 
them  should  now  be  read  without  a  running  commen 
tary  from  eye-witnesses  as  to  the  manner  in  which 
it  was  delivered.  The  aesthetics  all  centered  in 
the  art  of  the  orator,  the  bearing,  gesture,  tone. 
Henry's  magnetism  was  tremendous;  his  power  of 
feeling  the  psychology  of  the  crowd,  of  determining 
the  greatest  point  of  vantage,  of  directing,  and  of  then 
following  the  emotions  in  the  court-room,  constituted 
his  dramatic  excellence.  The  Virginians  looked 
upon  him  as  their  Henry,  even  as  the  South  Carolin 
ians,  according  to  Ramsay,  showed  pride  in  their  John 
Rutledge. 

The  mantle  of  oratory  passed  from  shoulder  to 
shoulder;  the  new  generation  boasted  of  having  been 
near  the  older  generation  on  the  occasion  of  a  last 
speech  or  law  case.  Thus  John  Randolph  followed 
upon  the  footsteps  of  Henry,  on  that  memorable  oc 
casion  when  a  whole  state  streamed  to  hear  the 
veteran,  when  even  a  college  suspended  work  to  at 
tend  the  historical  event. 

These  men  of  the  South  were  great  pleaders;  in 
that  respect  their  art  had  much  of  the  evanescence  of 
the  actor's  art ;  but  they  sent  ringing  down  the  years 
phrases  which  represent  not  themselves  so  much  as 
the  people  whose  spirit  they  officially  stood  for,  phrases 
which  penetrated  the  core  of  the  matter.  Our  schools 
have  made  these  extracts  trite  because  they  have 
separated  the  wording  from  the  vigor  of  the  moment ; 
yet  none  the  less  was  the  first  utterance  fraught  with 
the  beauty  of  genius  and  the  dignity  of  manhood. 
Their  brilliancy  made  their  profundity  popular;  their 
manner  added  a  golden  luster  to  their  minds.  Ed 
mund  Pendleton  was  famed  for  his  mellifluous  voice, 
while  Henry,  standing  in  the  early  morning  on  his 
grounds  overlooking  the  Staunton  River,  used  in 
moderate  tones  to  give  orders  to  his  field  hands  half 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  113 

a  mile  away.  George  Wythe,  as  legal  professor  in 
William  and  Mary  College,  was  known  to  cure  many 
students  of  wild  manner  by  the  courtesy  of  his  bow. 
Randolph  was  over-particular  regarding  the  small  de 
tails  of  bearing,  his  sarcasm,  his  ungovernable  rage, 
suddenly  giving  way  to  the  most  surprising  deference. 

When  these  orators  went  to  conventions,  they  did 
not  go  empty-handed  or  empty-minded;  they  did 
not  wait  for  the  chance  moment.  Charles  Pinckney 
was  sent  from  South  Carolina  to  the  Federal  Conven 
tion  with  a  plan  of  government  fully  drafted  in  a 
speech.  By  the  tenor  of  their  argument,  based  largely 
on  their  philosophical  distinctions  as  to  the  central 
izing  of  power,  they  declared  themselves  either  Vir 
ginians  or  Americans;  thus  no  one  could  confound 
Randolph's  claims  with  those  of  Washington.  In 
his  "  Party  Leaders,"  a  book  deserving  of  wider  rec 
ognition  to-day,  J.  G.  Baldwin  offers  some  suggestive 
reasoning  as  to  the  caliber  of  these  orators,  a  "  breed  " 
he  truly  calls  them,  rare  by  virtue  of  the  times  and 
by  value  of  the  civilization.  These  men  were  indeed 
transfigured,  and  they  were  possessed  of  the  golden 
oratory. 

When  a  man  in  other  walks  of  life  exhibited  a 
rare  gift  of  speech,  his  friends  brought  him  forward 
as  special  pleader  for  their  cause;  even  in  the  pulpit, 
matters  spiritual  gave  way  before  issues  of  more 
burning  moment.  The  force  of  Samuel  Davies,  while 
recognized,  was  considered  as  partially  lost,  for  the 
people  said,  in  the  face  of  his  intrepidity:  "What  a 
lawyer  was  spoiled  when  Davies  took  the  pulpit." 
We  are  inclined,  before  the  glamor  of  the  aristocracy 
of  birth,  to  lay  no  stress  upon  the  enormous  energy  in 
these  men,  which  helped  to  win  them  their  positions; 
Edmund  Pendleton,  for  example,  is  a  striking  instance 
of  the  self-made  man,  gifted  by  nature  with  a  musical 
voice,  a  sweet  disposition,  and  picturesque  mien, 


ii4    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

whose  progress  is  representative  of  truest  democracy, 
from  the  plow  to  the  highest  offices  of  public  trust. 
The  classical  training  which  Pendleton  did  not  have, 
but  which  was  possessed  by  most  professional  men  of 
that  day,  was  a  grace,  not  a  vital  acquisition;  the 
really  important  matter  to  Southerners  wras  law ; — it 
was  then  as  Mr.  Page  says,  "  that  the  real  power  of 
their  intellects  was  shown."  Their  greatest  reading  was 
in  the  path  of  Littleton  and  Coke  and  Blackstone. 
While  St.  George  Tucker,  step-father  of  Randolph, 
could  turn  such  feeling  verses  as  "Resignation,"  his 
pen  was  almost  wholly  employed  in  legal  writing.  His 
edition  of  Blackstone,  his  suggestions  regarding  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  Virginia,  his  active  work  as 
judge  and  professor,  these  facts  at  once  show  his  in 
clination.  The  law  is  part  of  the  intellectual  make-up 
of  the  South ;  the  individual  lawyer  may  hardly  be 
accounted  a  literary  man. 

This  professional  aptitude,  partly  expected  in  a 
family,  was  perhaps  inherited,  but  largely  a  matter  of 
atmospheric  contagion,  of  local  tradition — the  primo 
geniture  of  law !  The  long  line  of  Tuckers  is  an  in 
teresting  example  of  successive  generations  and  gath 
ering  tradition,  varying,  slightly  in  such  contrasts  as 
Beverley  Tucker's  "  Partisan  Leader  "  and  a  later  St. 
George  Tucker's  "  Hanford."  Southern  life  admitted 
of  small  variation  of  professions. 

The  literature  distinctive  of  this  period,  critical  in 
its  revolutionary  and  evolutionary  aspects,  was  a  war 
literature  chiefly.  The  writers  were  also  soldiers;  we 
obtain  a  near  view  of  history,  a  personal  narrative  of 
men  and  events.  It  was  a  period  of  adjustment,  where 
the  Tory  element  had  not  been  quite  stamped  out, 
where  wavering  minds  had  to  be  won  over  by  plain 
facts,  where  enthusiastic  colonists  had  to  ponder  the 
necessity  of  close  connection.  The  heroes  of  the 
court-house  were  counterbalanced  by  the  heroes  of  the 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  115 

field.  At  the  beginning  of  the  war,  Massachusetts 
looked  to  Virginia  for  moral  support  and  practical 
advice.  Virginia's  initiative  strengthened  the  initia 
tive  of  the  Northern  colony.  Then  Great  Britain, 
disheartened  over  the  lack  of  progress  in  the  North, 
transferred  operations  to  the  South,  and  Bloody 
Tarleton,  apart  from  the  deeper  historical  significance 
of  his  position,  served  to  put  zest  into  the  feminine 
writings  of  Mrs.  Eliza  Wilkinson.  Marion  and  Sum- 
ter  and  Henry  Lee  became  household  names;  Mor 
gan's  riflemen  furnished  material  for  romance.  The 
actual  fortunes  of  war  affected  Jefferson's  popularity 
as  Governor  of  Virginia.  As  first  President  of  South 
Carolina,  John  Rutledge  affords  another  instance  of 
the  spirit  of  American  Independence,  during  the  at 
tack  on  Charleston.  Lee  suggested  that  Moultrie 
evacuate  Sullivan's  Island;  the  latter  was  relieved  of 
all  decision  by  the  firm  message  of  Rutledge :  "  You 
will  not  without  an  order  from  me.  I  would  sooner 
cut  off  my  hand  than  write  one."  This  spirit,  this 
terseness,  is  not  typical  of  the  South ;  it  is  the  natural 
speech  of  war. 

For  many  years  to  come,  Southern  literature  was  to 
hark  back  to  this  period  of  revolution.  It  was  to  con 
sist  of  history,  biography  and  romance;  great  names 
typified  great  events,  and  the  idea  became  lost  in  an 
overgrowth  of  sentiment.  The  novels  of  the  period 
before  the  Civil  War  were  historical,  always  narrative, 
oftentimes  partisan,  but  hardly  endowed  with  any 
critical  spirit.  The  Revolution  handicapped  litera 
ture  as  the  Civil  War  handicapped  it.  The  Southern 
writer  kept  looking  back. 

Yet  the  South  was  not  far  behind  the  North  in  the 
different  phases  of  Revolutionary  literature,  as  sug 
gested  by  Professor  Tyler.  The  tractarian  movement 
was  not  so  general,  the  newspaper  not  so  accessible. 
But  the  poetry,  except  in  the  case  of  Freneau,  the 


ii6    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

drama,  letters,  political  essays,  diaries,  and  journals 
were  just  as  distinctive,  while  in  the  matter  of  state 
papers  and  orations,  the  South  was  in  the  ascendent. 


II 

The  men  of  this  time  were  human;  they  had  their 
prejudices,  their  jealousies,  their  differences,  but 
their  initial  vision  was  clear  and  disinterested.  In 
viewing  Patrick  Henry  (1736-1799),  the  mantle 
of  genius  covers  a  homely  figure  which  first  presented 
itself  to  the  people  of  Virginia — a  personality  which 
boldly  declared  itself  against  compromise,  which  held 
aloft  the  idea  of  independence,  seeming  thus  to 
emanate  from  an  unthinking,  uncouth  person,  gifted 
only  with  a  glow  of  words.  But  his  phrases  took  on 
meaning,  throbbed  with  a  new  significance.  The  un 
gainly  country  fellow  stood  forth  as  an  American,  and 
usurped  the  foremost  place  held  by  such  men  as  Pey 
ton  Randolph,  Wythe,  and  Bland.  These  men  of  the 
older  generation  were  cautious;  they  would  much 
rather  patch  up  the  difficulties,  a  view  held  generally 
by  a  considerable  number  of  the  conservative  colo 
nists.  But  even  Peyton  Randolph,  as  representative  of 
the  King,  began  to  understand  what  parliamentary 
encroachments  would  lead  to  in  the  end;  Henry  fear 
lessly  declared  the  outcome.  Of  all  his  acts,  the  Bill 
of  Rights,  written  by  him,  is  the  one  of  which  in  after 
years  he  was  most  proud.  Like  all  of  his  contem 
poraries  who  became  authors  of  state  papers,  the  orig 
inality  of  his  document  was  disputed ;  a  doubt  was 
cast  over  what  on  the  death  of  Henry  was  found  to 
be  authentic.  Jefferson,  likewise,  was  discredited  with 
the  ideas  underlying  the  Declaration.  Even  to-day, 
critics  claim  that  William  Henry  Drayton  was  the 
source  of  his  inspiration.  Thoughts  were  in  the  air; 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  117 

free  discussion  between  men  developed  a  species  of 
community  of  opinion;  intellects  were  placed  upon 
the  same  anvil;  the  same  force  drew  sparks  from  per 
sonality.  It  was  the  final  tone  of  the  finished  product 
which  stamped  the  genius  of  the  individual  statesman. 
But  Henry  was  slightly  different  from  the  Constitution 
makers  when  he  opposed  the  Stamp  Act  openly,  when 
he  refused  to  accept  any  design  for  a  readjustment 
of  the  colonies  as  colonies;  his  was  an  original  atti 
tude. 

Like  most  of  the  public  men  of  the  time,  Henry 
was  often  doubted;  petty  jealousies  misrepresented 
him,  yet,  like  Washington,  he  was  open  and  frank, 
outspoken  in  his  desire  to  disarm  suspicion.  Jefferson 
did  much  in  later  years  to  lend  a  false  color  to  Henry's 
intellect,  to  his  manner  of  speech  which,  even  though 
tinged  with  rude  excrescences,  only  points  to  local 
associations,  and  not  to  illiteracy.  Though  some  of 
his  opposition  to  measures  was  based  on  a  certain 
obstinacy  in  his  character,  Henry,  nevertheless,  was 
usually  wise  if  not  profound;  he  was  essentially  the 
representative  of  liberty,  and  as  such,  one  may  at 
least  understand  how  he  came  to  oppose  the  adop 
tion  of  a  new  constitution.  Intrepid  over  the  gaining 
of  freedom,  he  was  cautious  about  relinquishing  any 
hold  on  what  was  so  dearly  bought.  As  the  historian 
avers,  Henry  was  a  good  fighter,  never  a  good  hater; 
he  believed  in  adjustment  after  the  point  he  fought 
for  had  been  gained.  The  successful  issue  of  the 
Revolution  found  him  supporting  measures  which 
might  lead  to  some  renewed  relations  with  Great 
Britain. 

Henry  had  much  against  him  in  appearance ;  it  was 
his  earnest  manner,  his  magnetic  speech,  his  generous 
attitude — even  while  arraying  every  means  of  opposi 
tion  against  his  adversary — that  courted  trust  and  won 
der.  His  was  not  the  art  of  composition ;  the  orators 


n8    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

of  those  times  gave  forth  the  genius  of  first  utterance ; 
their  style,  indeed,  was  inherent  in  the  utterance;  the 
state  paper  contained  the  orator's  foresight  and  im 
pulse,  modified  by  a  sound  knowledge  of  law.  That 
is  what  surprised  Chatham,  when  he  faced  the  House 
of  Lords  and  praised  the  written  terms  which  repre 
sented  colonial  measures. 

Henry  and  Washington  both  suffered  from  the 
machinations  of  hidden  factions.  Although  in  Vir 
ginia  the  prime  force,  not  only  in  the  declaration  of 
war  measures  but  in  seeing  the  measures  through, 
centered  in  Henry,  although  the  conservative 
elders  concealed  their  personal  animosity  be 
neath  a  feeling  that  the  younger  man  was  "  pre 
mature,"  Henry,  nevertheless,  became  the  leader.  His 
was  the  positive  assertion  of  war,  nor  was  his  speech 
tinged  with  any  of  the  lost  hope  of  peace.  His  tem 
per,  his  sentiment,  his  experience — all  conduced  to 
make  his  arguments  ring  with  the  sincerity  of  convic 
tion.  He  was  not  equivocal ;  he  called  for  war  in  the 
spirit  of  the  old  Hebrew  leaders;  the  minds  before  him 
constituted  soil  ready  to  receive  him.  He  was  not  in 
cendiary,  the  war  spirit  in  him  was  prompted  by  the 
holiness  of  the  cause;  you  could  see  it  in  his  burning 
eye,  in  his  features  akindle  with  intense  emotion,  in 
the  physical  strain  upon  his  body,  in  the  sonorous 
music  of  the  voice  of  the  leader.  His  dramatic  de 
livery  was  in  itself  literature;  words  of  those  days, 
save  for  the  general,  fundamental  ideas  which  they 
contain,  have  lost  the  shades  of  meaning  which  the 
living  inflection  bestowed ;  an  editor  in  the  future  must 
come  to  take  our  significant  state  papers  and  to  pre 
pare  them  dramatically  for  the  press;  the  essence  of 
the  thought  must  not  be  isolated  from  the  essence  of 
the  man  in  whom  the  thought  originated.  The 
genius  of  American  democracy  is  symbolized  by  the 
modesty  of  Henry.  When  Jefferson  rode  to  the 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  119 

Capitol  on  the  morning  of  his  inauguration,  tying  his 
own  horse  to  the  post,  his  modesty  was  partly  usurped 
by  his  determined  desire  to  do  away  with  the  so-called 
panoply  of  Federalism.  But  as  Henry  turned  away 
after  delivering  his  Virginia  Resolutions,  with  the  con 
sciousness  of  having  angered  Randolph,  yet  with  no 
conceit  over  being  on  a  footing  with  his  superiors  by 
priority  of  time,  with  Pendleton,  Wythe,  and  Bland, 
he  represented  the  pioneer  in  thought  as  well  as  in 
costume. 

There  are  many  who  would  credit  Henry  with  no 
claims  to  learning,  but  facts  will  point  to  his  early 
education  in  the  fundamental  branches,  and  in  some 
special  understanding  of  Latin,  Greek,  and  mathe 
matics  ;  he  was  not  college  bred,  and  in  general  litera 
ture  he  was  ill  equipped,  but  Jefferson  was  wrong  in 
his  claim  that  Henry  read  nothing.  Yet  even  he  was 
obliged  to  confess  that  his  "  illiterate "  associate  on 
occasions  would  exhibit  the  widest  knowledge, 
couched  in  the  most  proper  language.  In  after  years, 
Henry's  grandson  narrated  how,  when  at  college,  he 
feared  to  face  the  quiz  in  the  classics  which  his  grand 
father  gave  him.  Patrick,  early  in  life,  was  a  man  in 
trade,  yet  despite  his  attendance  upon  a  shop,  and 
even  his  occasional  role  as  a  publican,  he  made  time, 
in  the  words  of  Wirt,  to  procure  "  a  few  light  and 
elegant  authors,"  besides  practicing  on  the  violin  and 
the  flute. 

We  are  told  by  authorities  that  he  read  his  Livy 
regularly,  that  from  Beverley  and  Stith  he  received 
the  historical  background  of  Virginia,  and  that  But 
ler's  "  Analogy  "  was  one  of  his  favorites.  In  after 
years,  when  in  retirement,  Henry's  mind  largely  be 
came  centered  on  spiritual  matters;  he  assailed  the 
skepticism  of  the  younger  generation, — a  disbelief  in 
the  fundamentals  "of  Christianity,  which  welcomed 
such  literature  as  Thomas  Paine's  "  Age  of  Reason  " ; 


120    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

he  even  wrote  a  protest  against  the  latter.  Then  at  his 
own  expense,  while  holding  the  office  of  Governor,  he 
caused  to  be  printed  Jenyns's  "  View  of  the  Internal 
Evidence  of  Christianity,"  as  well  as  a  new  edition 
of  the  "Analogy."  After  his  years  of  activity,  he 
settled  down  upon  his  estates,  intent  on  the  Bible,  and 
reading  the  discourses  of  English  divines.  For  his 
younger  children  he  had  engaged  the  services  of  the 
poet,  Campbell,  whose  desire  to  come  to  America  was 
checked  by  an  older  brother.  Henry,  in  private  life, 
enjoying  the  luxury  of  his  grandchildren,  attracted 
toward  him  the  keen  interest  of  a  rising  nation. 
Washington  offered  him  every  post  of  honor  in  his 
power,  but  his  public  days  were  over;  Sunday  even 
ings  he  would  read  to  his  family,  join  them  in  sacred 
music,  at  times  accompanying  with  his  violin.  At  other 
times,  his  public  concern  was  as  keen  as  ever.  Such  a 
man  must  needs  be  a  force  unto  the  end ;  Washington 
knew  it,  and  felt  that  Henry  was  needed  at  the  mo 
ment,  in  1799,  when  French  influence  and  the  Republi 
canism  of  the  Kentucky  and  Virginia  Resolutions, 
carrying  with  them  the  nullification  and  separatist 
theories,  to  his  mind  threatened  the  country.  The  re 
sult  was  the  dramatic  scene  of  Henry's  final  speech, 
an  infirm  old  man  facing  a  multitude ;  age  seemed  to 
drop  from  him  as  his  voice  mounted  in  picturesque 
periods  to  its  customary  eloquence, — a  power  which 
gripped  in  such  telling,  emotional  clauses :  ;<  You 
dare  not  do  it.  ...  The  steel  would  drop  from  your 
nerveless  arms ! "  "  United  we  stand,  divided  we 
fall."  This  style  is  melodramatic;  its  conciseness,  its 
vividness,  its  sting,  are  more  than  if  it  were  expanded. 
"  Millions  for  defense  but  not  one  cent  for  tribute," 
cried  John  Marshall,  compressing  into  an  epigram  the 
essence  of  a  nation's  life. 

Henry  was  gifted  with  deep  discernment;  he  was 
always  concerned  with  the  human  life  before  him;  he 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  121 

could  work  upon  the  emotions  of  the  people  because 
he  had  studied  them.  But  though  at  times  this  power 
seemed  almost  intuitive,  it  was,  as  Wirt  emphasizes, 
due  as  much  to  his  habit  of  seeking-  for  information 
outside  of  himself,  of  learning  from  others,  especially 
from  the  average  citizen;  he  placed  a  certain  distrust 
in  the  aristocracy;  he  sensed  life.  This  ability  comes 
to  men  whose  knowledge  is  obtained  from  other 
sources  than  books;  who  after  action  give  themselves 
up  to  intense  revery.  Professor  Trent  called  him  a 
"  Shakespeare  and  Garrick  combined,"  echoing  the 
words  of  John  Randolph. 

Metaphysics  requires  little  of  the  exact  knowledge 
which  the  modern  historian  must  have  before  he  be 
gins  to  generalize.  Although  Henry's  arguments 
against  the  Constitution  were  metaphysical,  they  were 
nevertheless  the  outcome  of  practical  experience;  he 
attained  his  views  through  common  sense,  and  in  the 
end  it  was  his  common  sense  that  made  him  give  in 
to  the  superior  weight  of  others;  he  never,  however, 
rid  himself  of  an  inborn  distrust  of  the  centralizing 
power  of  government.  Possibly,  in  his  sincere  desire 
for  a  perfect  document,  he  could  not  see,  with  Frank 
lin,  that  at  this  moment  it  was  the  best  that  could 
be  done.  No  more  brilliant  body  was  to  be  had  than 
that  which  attended  the  Virginia  Convention  in  order 
to  ratify  the  Constitution;  in  the  assemblage  Henry 
stood  as  the  one  determined  representative  of  the  peo 
ple.  Judge  St.  George  Tucker  wrote  of  him :  "  If 
he  soared  at  times  like  the  eagle,  and  seemed,  like  the 
bird  of  Jove,  to  be  armed  with  his  thunder,  he  did  not 
disdain  to  stoop  like  the  hawk  to  seize  his  prey,  but 
the  instant  he  had  done  it,  rose  in  pursuit  of  another 
quarry." 

As  usual,  Henry  found  his  strength  pitted  in  opposi 
tion  against  Madison,  Randolph,  Pendleton,  Henry 
Lee,  Marshall,  and  Wythe.  His  chief  objection  was  a 


122    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

matter  of  states'  rights  as  opposed  to  national  powers 
drawn  directly  from  the  states  to  be  used  upon  the 
states;  he  believed  in  the  separate  sovereignty,  he  be 
lieved  in  confederation.  During  the  debates,  his 
power  of  ridicule  was  constantly  brought  into  effect 
ive  use.  What  the  document  needed  was  amend 
ments,  and  Henry's  influence  in  bringing  about  the 
adoption  of  the  first  ten  was  enormous. 

This  sketch  somewhat  vaguely  suggests  the  activity 
of  Patrick  Henry  as  a  Revolutionary  orator;  it  like 
wise  suggests  some  interesting  speculations  as  to  his 
statesmanship,  for  in  this  respect  he  was  more  of  the 
state  than  of  the  nation.  Having  reached  beyond  the 
colonial  idea,  he  feared  for  the  national ;  his  own  Vir 
ginia  had  accused  him  of  usurping  power,  and,  as  rep 
resentative  of  the  people,  he  was  determined  to  pro 
tect  any  state's  rights  which  might  be  assumed  by  the 
Constitution. 

Henry's  speeches  did  not  have  polish,  they  were  not 
highly  colored,  they  did  not  depend  upon  citation 
from  others.  He  made  appeal  to  men's  judgments, 
he  drew  upon  experience,  he  exhausted  historical 
sources  only  where  they  were  essential  to  his  purpose. 
In  expression  he  was  not  florid ;  his  speech  was  that 
of  a  plain  man  whose  ripened  intellect  was  fostered 
by  himself  through  acute  observation,  through  keen 
searching,  through  particular  rather  than  general 
reading.  Characteristic  of  the  orator,  his  emotion 
was  in  control  for  effect,  his  eloquence  had  its  ebb 
and  flow;  his  imagination,  in  no  way  extravagant, 
and  not  often  in  evidence,  gave,  however,  a  certain 
power  to  his  wording.  In  delivery  he  was  courteous, 
often  reserved,  always  dignified,  even  when  Randolph 
as  Governor  turned  his  accustomed  ire  upon  Henry's 
Constitution  opposition.  The  correspondence,  mostly 
official,  Is  direct,  although  with  a  peculiar  mixture  of 
tautology,  and  hasty  expression ;  "  yet  upon  the 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  123 

whole,"  writes  Wirt,  "it  was  pure  and  perspicuous, 
.  .  .  free  from  affectation  and  frequently  beautiful." 
Historically,  Henry's  position  after  the  Revolution 
was  based  upon  pronounced  Southern  characteristics — 
Southern  because  they  persisted  and  became  more 
fraught  with  sectional  meaning1.  On  close  analysis, 
one  might  detect  in  them  a  persistence  of  colonial  dis 
trust.  The  great  point  to  bear  in  mind,  however,  is 
that  sectional  differences  had  not  yet  become  suffi 
ciently  differentiated  to  require  special  legislation. 
We  might  claim  that  the  isolated  community  interest 
in  the  Southern  colonies,  which  was  the  cause  of 
Southern  individualism,  had  something  to  do  thus 
early  with  the  adherence  to  states'  rights.  But 
Henry  did  not,  in  opposing  the  Constitution,  argue 
for  secession ;  he  was  fighting  to  prevent  an  excess  of 
power  as  applied  to  a  union,  and  was  perfectly  willing 
to  further  any  movement  which  might  strengthen  the 
confederation.  Do  we  not  here  detect  a  metaphysical 
quibbling,  partly  justified  by  the  absence  of  amend 
ment,  which  was  later  to  become  the  channel  through 
which  Calhoun  was  to  be  drawn?  It  was  a  question 
of  implied  rights  versus  stated  rights — the  chief  cause 
of  the  Civil  War.  This  opposition  of  Henry's  was 
shared  in  the  North  as  well. 


ill 

Unlike  Henry,  George  Washington  (1732-1799) 
was  essentially  the  sound  and  silent  leader — a  cautious 
general  on  the  field,  a  sane  guide  through  the  critical 
period  of  constitutional  adjustment.  Tradition  has 
encrusted  his  true  proportions,  idolization  has  taken 
from  him  his  large  humanity,  and  only  now,  after  years 
of  half-superstitious  belief  in  the  sensational  fabrica 
tions  of  the  parson-biographer,  "  Weems,  turned  book 


I24    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

agent,"  have  the  historian,  the  essayist,  even  the  novel 
ist,  ventured  to  depict  his  essential  greatness  in  the 
midst  of  his  practical  every-day  existence.  Some 
would  take  from  him  his  generalship  because  his  suc 
cesses,  paradoxically,  were  either  defeats  or  retreats; 
others  would  overshadow  his  statesmanship,  not  rec 
ognizing  his  genius  for  detecting  in  others  that  which 
would  satisfy  fully  the  moment  or  the  hour. 

Washington  was  not  the  flabby  saint,  in  boyhood 
or  manhood,  that  Weems  depicts.  This  ambulatory 
author,  as  Lodge  states,  was  sincere  perhaps  in  his 
adulation,  but  atrophied  in  his  historical  sense;  the 
rector  of  popular  appeal,  boasting  of  his  Mount  Ver- 
non  parish,  aimed  for  widespread  acceptance,  and  his 
"  Life  of  Washington ;  with  Curious  Anecdotes  equally 
honorable  to  himself,  and  exemplary  to  his  young 
countrymen,"  was  circulated  broadcast.  By  1816,  it 
had  reached  its  seventeenth  edition.  It  is  false  in  its 
moral  sentimentality,  having,  nevertheless,  certain 
foundation  facts.  The  Reverend  Jacob  Abbott  could 
not  have  drawn  Rollo  so  devoid  of  shading,  so  prig 
gish  in  bearing  as  Weems  drew  Washington.  Little 
did  Henry  Lee,  when  he  delivered  his  famed  funeral 
oration,  famed  largely  for  the  oft-quoted  "  First  in 
war,"  realize  that  this  phrasing  would  inevitably  con 
tribute  toward  creating  what  Wister  calls  "  a  frozen 
image."  The  author  of  "The  Virginian,"  therefore, 
in  his  "  Seven  Ages  of  Washington,"  proceeds  to  quote 
with  zest  Washington's  characterization  of  Randolph, 
and  it  does  strike  the  ear  with  a  warmth  that  brings 
a  thaw  in  its  track :  "  A  damned  scoundrel  God  Al 
mighty  never  permitted  to  disgrace  humanity." 

Washington's  mind  was  essentially  practical;  his 
whole  training  was  practical,  his  early  cultivation  of 
imagination  was  sacrificed  to  the  logarithmic  exacti 
tude  of  higher  mathematics.  Sparks  would  lead  us  to 
believe  that  Washington  sedulously  strove  to  curb  an 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  125 

over-emotional  nature;  if  so,  then  he  willfully  de 
stroyed  what  might  have  enriched  his  culture.  Pre 
cision  is  the  consuming  characteristic  of  his  life,  it  is 
the  underlying  virtue  of  his  style;  nevertheless,  there 
is  a  certain  grace  to  his  expression  at  times  which  is 
innate  rather  than  acquired,  which  is  a  natural  indica 
tion  of  personal  worth  rather  than  the  product  of  con 
scious  art.  When  Sparks,  in  unwarranted  manner, 
edited  the  actual  wording  of  Washington's  manu 
scripts,  he  in  part  was  continuing  what  the  writer 
himself  in  early  years  had  begun  to  do.  Washington 
was  not  a  man  of  set  education;  he  was  strictly  an 
unerring  student  of  life,  whether  his  gaze  turned 
across  the  western  frontier,  or  whether  details  came 
close  and  directly  under  his  observation.  It  is  partly 
true  that  a  man  of  such  a  nature  imbibes  unknowingly 
what  others  gain  through  set  effort.  Washington 
was  never  indifferent  to  education ;  he  felt  deeply  the 
deficiency  in  himself,  and  he  did  not  pretend  that 
which  he  did  not  possess.  When  he  read,  it  was  hardly 
in  the  humanities,  but  rather  in  the  more  masculine 
literature  which  corresponded  with  the  life  he  lived. 
Yet  he  was  one  given  to  the  appreciation  of  what 
might  be  called  recreative  writing;  he  was  a  theater 
goer  of  considerable  extent,  and  Mr.  Ford,  in  his 
monograph,  has  shown  what  a  deprivation  it  was  to 
the  soldier  when  the  Continental  Congress  ordered 
places  of  amusement  closed. 

If  history  be  read  aright,  Washington's  greatness 
is  all  the  more  great  because  its  silent  total  is  due  to 
the  high  seriousness  of  a  definite  personality,  rather 
than  wholly  to  the  calm  virtues  of  a  peaceable  man. 
He  was  such  a  personality  as  an  untried  government 
needed ;  self-control  of  a  romantic  inclination,  of  an 
unbounded  temper,  had  made  him  wary  of  trusting 
first  impressions  based  on  passing  emotion;  circum 
stances  had  early  put  upon  his  shoulders  responsibili- 


126    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

ties  far  exceeding  his  years.  With  excellent  tradition, 
in  the  midst  of  an  aristocratic  life,  he  was  forced  to 
labor  with  his  hands;  he  was  given  at  an  early  age 
glimpses  beyond  the  Allegheny — a  view  which  later 
ripened  into  his  profound  opinions  on  the  necessity  for 
territorial  expansion,  a  growth  of  large  moment  to  the 
South. 

In  intellectual  progression,  Washington  logically 
follows  Henry,  for  he  carried  the  colonies  beyond  the 
colonial  idea,  besides  aiding  in  freeing  them.  Henry 
was  the  inspiration  of  the  word  liberty,  the  prime 
mover  in  the  initial  impulse  toward  freedom.  As  gen 
eral,  Washington  was  the  man  of  action ;  as  statesman, 
the  man  of  far-reaching  national  vision,  too  practical 
if  you  will,  to  be  experimental — too  serious  to  be 
moved  by  ulterior  design.  Trained  from  youth  to 
form  his  own  judgments,  his  mental  balance,  a  perfect 
example  of  sanity,  became  more  acute  as  the  demands 
on  his  statecraft  grew  more  urgent.  It  is  clearly 
evident,  through  his  correspondence,  that  Washing 
ton's  outward  reserve  was  no  measure  of  his  firm 
decisions  formed  through  acute  observation  and 
through  judicious  reaching  out  for  advice.  The 
future  humanitarian,  who  incidentally  has  the  histor 
ical  sense,  will  unearth  much  in  the  published  writings 
of  Washington,  to  place  him  back  within  the  ranks  of 
his  fellowmen,  differentiating  him  from  them  through 
the  force,  dignity  and  kindliness  of  his  actions  among 
men.  It  is  not  enough  that  the  historian  master  his 
facts  in  their  relation  with  leaders;  he  should  draw 
character  in  the  light  of  these  facts.  Mr.  Lodge's 
estimate  of  Washington,  in  the  final  summary  to  his 
biography,  is  adequate  considering  the  limits  of  his 
space.  Coupled  with  Professor  Trent's  appreciative 
essay,  it  should  suggest  a  portraiture,  well  rounded 
and  of  full  proportion.  When  Fiske  spoke  of  the 
"  unparalleled  grandeur  "  of  the  general,  he  put  the 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  127 

words  noble  and  sensible  in  juxtaposition.  Washing 
ton's  circular  letter  to  the  heads  of  the  states  at  the 
time  of  the  disbandment  of  the  Revolutionary  army, 
and  his  farewell  address,  were  not  mere  preachments 
turned  for  effect;  they  were  the  far-sighted  opinions 
of  a  constructive  mind  working  on  personal  knowl 
edge  and  experience. 

Washington  was  indeed  the  first  American;  events 
raised  him.  out  of  the  narrow  confines  of  sectionalism. 
His  efforts  were  engaged  quite  as  much  in  the  direction 
of  impressing  an  independent  people  with  their 
sovereign  power,  as  of  changing  the  foreign  attitude 
toward  America  from  colonial  tolerance  to  sovereign 
recognition.  In  fhe  last  analysis,  he  and  Lincoln,  as 
Mr.  Lodge  states,  did  come  from  the  same  stock,  but 
they  were  not  brought  up  in  the  same  atmosphere.  I 
picture  Washington  following  a  straight  course,  on 
one  hand  intent  on  his  agricultural  pursuits  and  living 
the  active  life  of  a  country  squire,  on  the  other  intent 
upon  his  chief  concern  as  a  statesman,  to  further  every 
detail,  no  matter  what  the  opposition,  which  would 
secure  the  power  of  the  Union,  and  insure  the  develop 
ment  of  the  nation,  untrammeled  by  foreign  entangle 
ment.  He  possessed  the  rare  faculty  of  noting  the 
limitations  on  both  sides  of  a  difficulty;  he  calculated 
that  there  would  be  differences  in  demands  North  and 
South,  but  to  him,  as  he  often  stated  in  his  letters, 
differences  were  as  likely  to  arise  between  the  northern 
and  southern  sections  of  states,  because  of  unequal 
distribution  of  advantages. 

Some  writers,  in  speaking  of  Washington  as  a  party 
man,  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  he  was  a  Federalist 
by  force  of  circumstances,  and  because  the  party 
represented  the  views  which  he  had  already  formulated 
when  it  came  into  existence.  In  very  definite  terms  he 
has  left  on  record  his  belief  that  party  lines  only 
led  to  "  baleful  effects  " — to  dissensions  which  inevi- 


128    THE   LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

tably  distracted  and  enfeebled  public  councils  and  pub 
lic  administrations.  Washington  was  obsessed  by  the 
consuming  desire  to  weld  a  nation  out  of  the  thirteen 
separate  colonies.  It  is  human  nature  that,  in  establish 
ing  the  dignity  of  the  executive,  he  should  be  accused 
of  monarchical  tendencies ;  yet  such  was  never  his  idea ; 
he  believed  in  checks  upon  the  government,  but  only 
as  a  means  of  balance,  not  as  a  hindrance  to  accom 
plishment.  His  one  idea  was  national ;  the  westward 
progress  was  national  to  his  mind,  for  he  saw  that  so 
long  as  the  Spaniards  or  the  French  retained  a  hold 
upon  American  soil,  there  would  be  complications  to 
hinder  expansion,  and  to  limit  internal  transportation. 
When  he  proposed  supporting  a  national  university, 
there  was  a  certain  personal  pride  in  his  effort  to 
insure  that  to  the  young  men  of  the  country  which 
he  had  been  denied ;  but  also  one  must  not  omit  his 
prime  object,  to  keep  American  youth  from  foreign 
universities  where  they  were  in  danger  of  imbibing 
sentiments  inimical  to  the  idea  of  republican  govern 
ment. 

Had  Washington  been  a  literary  man  in  the  true 
sense  of  the  word,  he  would  have  avoided  a  certain 
didactic  strain,  both  in  his  papers  and  in  his  letters, 
which  brought  upon  him  certain  irritable  censure.  He 
felt  himself  constrained  to  point  out  on  public  occa 
sions  the  dangers  which  beset  the  nation;  he  saw 
clearly  where  the  ship  of  state  was  tending.  He  was 
not  accustomed  to  speak  in  gilded  phrases;  even  his 
farewell  address  was  smoothed  over  by  Hamilton ;  but 
he  possessed  a  quaint  dignity  of  expression  which  is 
usually  developed  in  one  to  whom,  in  private  life,  de 
tails  are  referred  for  judgment.  His  letter  to  Nellie 
Custis,  on  the  subject  of  love,  is  typical  of  his  parental 
attitude,  and  to  stretch  the  figure,  the  nation  was  to 
him  his  largest  child.  His  policy  toward  England  and 
France  was  measured  in  accord  with  what  he  thought 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  129 

best  for  the  nation.  When  Kentucky,  in  whose  men 
flowed  the  pioneer  blood  which  pulsed  to  a  large  ex 
tent  in  his  veins,  demanded  the  Mississippi  as  their 
right,  Washington  interpreted  their  attitude  as  the 
natural  expansion  of  national  life.  In  all  questions 
that  in  after  years  served  to  disturb  the  South,  he  was 
certain  to  measure  the  consequences  in  terms  of  na 
tional  advantage.  So  persistent  was  he  in  this  idea 
that  he  lent  color  to  the  party  which  claimed  him.  It 
is  only  in  temperament  and  personal  character  that 
Washington  was  Southern. 

But  even  this  is  claiming  a  great  deal.  For  a  civi 
lization  to  develop  such  manhood  speaks  well  for  the 
social  heritage  of  the  people.  Virginia  was  pouring 
forth  her  very  life  blood,  her  whole  strength,  in  con 
structive  leadership;  territorially,  she  was  shriveling 
through  her  own  disinterested  desire  to  be  the  mother 
of  states,  as  well  as  of  statesmen.  In  manner,  bear 
ing,  speech,  Washington  was  a  Virginia  gentleman  of 
the  early  eighteenth  century ;  a  gentleman  by  right  of 
deed,  not  by  right  of  position,  unless,  as  in  his  case, 
the  position  was  strengthened  by  action.  In  the  light 
of  a  farmer,  he  was  thrifty,  and  not  wasteful  of  his 
land;  had  the  Southern  planters  heeded  the  care  with 
which  the  crops  on  his  acres  were  alternated,  they 
would  have  done  well;  had  the  South  listened  to  his 
views  on  slavery — his,  and  Henry's,  and  Jefferson's — 
it  would  have  been  saved  the  inevitable  calculation 
of  the  slave  as  an  economic  asset,  and  as  a  political 
question.  There  was  gravity  in  his  speech,  in  his 
humor  of  which  he  was  not  devoid,  even  in  the  social 
amenities  in  which  he  was  not  lacking.  Thackeray's 
"  The  Virginians  "  partly  portrays  his  poise ;  the  in 
tensity  of  his  gaze,  the  compression  of  his  lips,  be 
spoke  the  deep  force  of  his  nature. 

The  man,  in  high  seriousness,  in  human  bearing,  in 
judicial  mood,  in  healthy  sport,  in  sound  humor,  in 


130    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

practical  calculation,  is  evident  in  his  writing;  his  style 
has  no  claim  to  aesthetics,  yet  in  the  analysis  of  char 
acter,  in  the  description  of  scenes,  in  graceful  compli 
ment  which  sounds  strange  to-day  simply  because  the 
old-fashioned  courteous  art  is  disappearing  or  in 
transition,  in  the  decisive  calculations  of  good  and  evil, 
his  excellence  is  pronounced.  His  estimates  of  events 
and  of  men  at  close  range  are  to  be  valued  historically, 
in  the  same  manner  that  Poe's  estimates  of  his  literary 
contemporaries  show  in  him  the  genuine  critic.  The 
men  of  that  period  were  thus  endowed  with  a  quality 
of  detachment;  especially  in  the  case  of  Washington, 
there  were  moments  when  events  could  be  handled  in 
the  pure  spirit  of  exact  rather  than  of  human  justice. 
Before  Marshall's  gaze,  the  picture  of  national  develop 
ment  moved  in  historical  order;  take  his  estimate  of 
Washington  and  contrast  it  with  Jefferson's  varying 
opinions  which  fluctuated  according  to  his  feelings,  his 
momentary  prejudices,  and  one  will  hardly  deny  that 
the  judicial  quality  of  Jefferson's  authorship  was 
marred,  not  only  by  an  extravagance  of  style  at  times, 
but  as  well  by  a  party  narrowness  which  Washington 
so  continually  deplored. 

But  Jefferson  carried  the  idea  of  statesmanship  an 
other  step — a  step  nearer  the  Southern  soil ;  he  like 
wise  was  a  logical  outcome  of  Washington,  develop 
ing  the  political  character  which  in  the  South  was 
later  to  be  limited  by  a  necessity  for  the  defense  of 
social  institutions. 

IV 

Jefferson  was  essentially  a  man  of  the  future;  he 

-ne  in  whom  a  consuming  faith  was  larger  than 

the  fact.     His  mind  was  elastic:  his  enthusiasm  was 

splendid   even   though   his   wisdom   was   not   always 

sound.     He  was  the  type  of  man  to  whom  the  vision 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  131 

of  an  ample  end  came  before  he  had  thoroughly  looked 
into  the  limiting  means.  He  was  a  statesman  because 
in  those  days  statesmanship  was  in  the  air,  but  his 
speculative  tendency,  his  wide  interests,  betokened  the 
dreamer.  An  abiding  trust  in  human  nature  among 
the  rank  and  file  was  the  chief  richness  of  his  demo 
cratic  principles,  and  his  inconsistencies,  which  are  seen 
to  exist  between  his  utterance  and  his  act,  are  due 
largely  to  his  zealous  intent  to  win  for  the  people 
what  was  best  for  them;  he  hardly  swerved  from  his 
fundamental  beliefs. 

Such  a  mind  is  attractive,  on  one  hand  because  of 
its  catholicity  of  interests,  and  on  the  other  because  of 
its  surprising  theories  of  large  originality.  The  ardent 
manner  in  which  he  approached  a  new  topic  was 
measure  of  his  personality.  Unlike  Henry,  his  idea  of 
liberty  was  philosophical ;  unlike  Washington,  his  con 
ception  of  the  nation  was  based  on  an  intense  belief  in 
the  freedom  of  the  individual ;  unlike  most  of  his  con 
temporaries,  he  was  the  idealist  whose  generalities 
were  beyond  immediate  accomplishment.  Such  a  man 
assuredly  tests  all  conditions,  all  requirements,  not  ac 
cording  to  the  condition,  but  according  to  the  future 
need.  Washington  was  safe;  Jefferson,  through  ob 
servation  and  rich  power  of  projection,  risked  con 
sequences,  imagining  the  ultimate  effect.  Without 
such  characteristics,  he  never  would  have  been  able 
to  overleap  the  Constitution  and  purchase  Louisiana. 

An  estimate  of  such  a  man  is  difficult  to  reach;  if 
you  indicate  his  official  life,  you  realize  that  to  him  the 
greatest  fact  was  not  his  presidency,  or  his  vice-presi 
dency;  not  his  foreign  ministry  or  his  other  varied 
public  offices :  but  his  Declaration  of  Independence,  his 
Statute  of  Virginia  for  religious  freedom,  and  his  posi 
tion  as  Father  of  the  University  of  Virginia.  His 
attitude  toward  the  people  was  that  of  the  romanticist 
whose  simple  faith  in  life,  in  human  motive,  overcame 


132     THE   LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

any  doubt  of  accomplishment.  This  simple  faith  was 
another  cause  for  his  inconsistencies ;  he  swerved  from 
side  to  side  as  he  thought  it  best  for  the  interests  of  the 
people  rather  than  of  the  government;  according  to 
this  view,  he  interpreted  the  Constitution  narrowly  or 
broadly,  as  the  case  might  be. 

It  is  easy  to  gain  a  one-sided  picture  of  any  of  these 
men  of  constructive  days;  but  Jefferson's  many  facets 
send  forth  fascinating  rays.  Like  most  Southerners 
of  the  time,  his  home  life  was  full  of  rich  charm  in  its 
rural  beauty,  in  the  warmth  of  its  social  intercourse, 
in  its  easy  industry  upon  an  ample  estate.  Monticello 
became  a  Mecca  for  pilgrims,  and  he  in  truth  its  very 
sage.  This  position,  in  retirement  after  years  of 
varied  work,  was  due  to  a  popularity  gained  through 
daring,  but  also  through  his  democratic  views. 

In  his  boyhood,  sprung  from  Welsh  stock,  and  the 
patrician  blood  of  the  Randolphs,  he  first  developed 
that  application  which  in  after  years  served  him  to 
such  an  excellent  purpose.  He  studied  fifteen  hours  a 
day  at  William  and  Mary  College,  which  concentration 
embraced  extensive  reading  in  Greek,  Latin,  French, 
Italian,  and  English  literature,  and  later,  while  torn 
in  a  love  affair,  he  read  law  with  Wythe,  and  wished 
Coke  to  the  Devil.  He  was  a  believer  in  precept,  in 
routine,  in  the  theory  of  the  simple  life;  he  was  con 
stantly  questioning  himself,  measuring  his  attitude  and 
actions  by  what  he  imagined  his  friends  would  do 
under  similar  circumstances,  such  men  as  Prof.  Small 
of  the  Departments  of  Mathematics  and  Philosophy, 
"  who  probably  fixed  the  destinies  of  my  life,"  Peyton 
Randolph,  and  Wythe,  with  whom  he  labored  for 
democratic  reforms  in  Virginia. 

At  an  early  age,  Jefferson  was  given  to  weighty 
company  and  intense  beliefs;  also  his  personal  habits 
and  tastes  became  early  accentuated,  and  his  love  for 
farming  particularly  helped  to  increase  his  income,  be- 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  133 

sides  impressing  him  with  the  importance  of  agricul 
ture  and  the  healthy  advantages  of  rural  life,  as  op 
posed  to  the  dangers  of  concentrated  population  in 
cities.  At  the  age  of  fifty-seven,  when  trying  to  sum 
up  the  several  benefits  given  through  his  endeavors  to 
the  world,  he  placed  his  experiments  with  the  olive 
plant  and  with  rice  alongside  of  his  efforts  for  reli 
gious  freedom,  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade,  for 
putting  an  end  to  entails,  primogeniture,  and  other 
legislation,  which,  as  Morse  says,  often  forced  his 
imagination  in  riotous  channels  for  the  benefit  of  man 
kind.  It  is  a  natural  coincidence  that  his  dreams  of 
love,  his  liking  for  Ossian,  and  his  experimental  agri 
culture  should  mark  the  same  period. 

As  a  Revolutionary  leader,  the  Virginians  began  to 
consider  him  too  radical,  perhaps  because  his  tendency 
to  sweeping  expression,  his  desire  for  reformation,  and 
his  energy  against  all  conservative  institutions  dear  to 
aristocratic  conservatism  were  coming  into  decided 
conflict  with  the  old  colonial  precedence.  He  soon  be 
came  noted  as  a  document  writer  of  skill,  dash,  and 
daring,  and  his  drawing  of  the  Declaration  was  a 
notable  instance  of  creative  work,  if  emphasis  is  laid, 
where  Ford  places  it,  upon  the  skill  with  which  the 
spirit  of  America  is  caught  in  expression.  The  sen 
sitiveness  of  Jefferson  was  not  regarded  by  a  cautious 
Congress,  which  in  many  ways  corrected  the  over- 
fullness  of  his  phrasing.  But  as  I  have  already  pointed 
out  as  being  clearly  analyzed  by  Fiske,  Jefferson's  ideal 
ism,  his  sweeping  phrase,  were  hardly  due  to  French 
influence,  even  though  he  was  familiar  with  the  Vol 
taire  and  Rousseau  schools  of  philosophy. 

His  work  in  the  Virginia  legislature  was  ably  rein 
forced  by  George  Mason  and  Monroe;  there  was  a 
strong  feeling  within  him  that  now,  freed  of  monarchi 
cal  subjection,  governmental  ideas  must  be  made  to 
conform  with  growing  republican  ideals.  His  activity  in 


I34    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

the  House  was  reactionary;  the  laws  of  inheritance, 
the  courts  of  justice,  the  Established  Church,  all  came 
under  his  disfavor;  he  was  intent  upon  satisfying  the 
needs  of  the  lower  classes  with  justice,  and  had  his 
school  system  been  supported,  he  would  have  done 
much  to  counteract  the  isolation  of  Virginia  rural  life. 
At  this  moment  also  he  was  intent  upon  a  plan  of 
abolishing  slavery,  which,  although  it  may  not  have 
been  practical,  at  least  pointed  to  his  realization  of  a 
future  difficulty,  arid  to  his  typical  feeling,  which  is  not 
Southern  but  white  feeling,  that  even  the  negro  is  an 
inferior  being  and  that  race  integrity  must  be  pre 
served. 

His  unpopularity  as  Governor  of  Virginia  during 
the  Revolution  was  largely  due  to  his  inability  to  meet 
the  situation  because  the  State  lacked  the  necessary 
equipment  for  defense,  but  also  to  his  unwisdom  in 
executive  work.  Much  more  suited  to  his  talents 
was  his  originality  in  drawing  up  constitutions,  in 
constructing  territories,  and,  when  he  became  a  mem 
ber  of  the  Congress  of  Confederation,  he  not  only  was 
entrusted  with  the  presentation  of  Virginia's  ceded 
northwest  territory  to  the  states,  but  he  likewise  drew 
up  a  governmental  regime  which,  among  its  strictures, 
abandoned  slavery  and  suggested  such  fantastic  names 
for  the  new  region  as  Michigania,  Metropotamia,  and 
Pelisipia. 

When  he  went  as  Minister  to  France,  his  interest 
was  naturally  involved  in  the  Revolution,  and  his 
standing  as  the  writer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ 
ence  made  the  National  Assembly  seek  his  advice. 
But  instead  of  being  materially  affected  by  events 
abroad,  they  only  served  to  make  him  more  American ; 
his  "  Notes  on  Virginia,"  in  some  way  his  most  dis 
criminating  work  of  the  pen,  had  won  for  him  a  com 
mendable  reputation,  published  in  a  French  edition  in 
1784.  The  Conservatives  began  again  to  bewail  his 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  135 

radicalism,  he  who,  when  Shays'  Rebellion  was  reported 
to  him,  wrote  of  his  approval  of  rebellion  under  special 
conditions,  as  conducing  to  prevent  stagnation.  This 
was  characteristic  of  Jefferson,  who  was  always  rest 
ive,  experimental,  progressive.  At  the  time  of  ad 
justment,  of  establishment,  his  species  of  mind  was 
essential ;  in  some  ways  it  was  a  safeguard  against 
over  and  sudden  crystallization. 

Jefferson's  first  stand  against  the  Constitution  was 
indicative  of  his  rooted  objection  to  any  fast  limita 
tion  of  the  people;  a  document  fixed  in  detail  would 
naturally  be  difficult  to  change  with  the  variation  of 
existing  condition.  Such  was  Henry's  fear  when  he 
insisted  upon  the  adoption  of  amendments. 

The  historical  importance  of  the  juxtaposition  of 
Jefferson  and  Hamilton  in  Washington's  cabinet  is 
foreign  to  our  immediate  purpose,  except  in  so  far  as 
in  the  adjustment  of  states,  and  in  the  drawing  of 
party  lines,  the  sectional  distinctions  became  more  and 
more  marked.  For  historians  emphasize  that  Jefferson's 
policies  were  more  nearly  in  accord  with  agricultural 
demands,  while  Hamilton's  far-reaching  financial 
schemes  were  framed  with  commercial  and  manufac 
turing  needs  in  mind — a  concentration  of  power  which 
harmonized  with  the  demands  of  concentrated  popula 
tion.  "  All  American  history,"  writes  Fiske,  "  has 
since  run  along  the  lines  marked  out  by  the  antago 
nism  between  Jefferson  and  Hamilton."  Jefferson's 
personal  animosity  in  these  disputes  ended  in  attacks 
which  do  not  fairly  represent  him  as  a  statesman,  but 
rather  reveal  that  sensitiveness  of  feeling  which  colored 
his  views  of  men's  motives,  and  deceived  him  into 
believing  the  worst  of  his  adversaries.  In  such  spirit, 
he  penned  the  unfortunate  "  Anas." 

But  the  conflict  of  party  views  continued  to  increase, 
and  Jefferson's  opposition  to  the  Alien  and  Sedition 
Laws,  which  took  shape  in  his  Kentucky  Resolutions, 


136    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

based  on  the  sovereign  right  of  states  from  which  the 
general  government  drew  its  life,  paved  the  way  for 
Calhoun's  principles  of  nullification.  What  in  theory 
Jefferson  took  to  be  a  safeguard  against  the  usurpa 
tion  of  centralized  power,  later  became  a  cause  for 
secession,  a  move  which  he  so  deplored,  but  the  pos 
sibility  of  which  he  clearly  foresaw  in  1820. 

Jefferson  was  a  most  inconsistent  Southerner,  and 
yet  his  writings  are  replete  with  just  those  ideas  which 
harmonize  with  the  feelings  of  the  Southern  people. 
He  foresaw  the  Monroe  doctrine  which  was  a  neces 
sary  protection  for  the  dignity  of  the  nation;  he  de 
tected  the  radical  sectional  differences  which  underlay 
the  party  lines;  he  early  showed  an  antipathy  toward 
New  England,  partly  because  of  its  predominant  Fed 
eral  policy.  But  in  the  territorial  expansion  which  he 
did  so  much  to  hasten,  his  view  was  wholly  national, 
nor  did  he  thoroughly  realize  the  effect  this  would 
have  upon  the  territorial  readjustment  of  the  South. 
In  the  same  breath  in  which  he  wrote :  "  Our  peculiar 
security  is  in  the  possession  of  a  written  constitution," 
he  also  was  involved  in  the  most  unconstitutional  of 
negotiations.  It  was  such  acts  of  inconsistency  which 
conflicted  with  his  attitudes  and  statements  in  other 
directions,  and  which  often  made  him  hedge.  As 
President,  his  rashness,  his  unfitness  in  certain  prac 
tical  details  relating  to  finance  and  commerce,  drew 
upon  him  censure  which  was  justified ;  but  much  of  the 
distorted  impression  we  gain  of  him  is  had  through 
too  close  an  adherence  to  the  disputes  and  imputations 
which  clustered  around  pure  motive.  The  best  way  to 
regard  these  men  of  Revolutionary  times  is  in  per 
spective,  a  perspective  which,  as  Morse  says,  consists 
of  "  large  lines  of  ...  purposes  and  policy  held  with 
much  steadiness  in  the  noble  direction  of  a  perfect 
humanitarianism." 

In  retirement,  Jefferson  still  exerted  his  influence 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  137 

and  continued  his  active  correspondence;  he  was  now 
safe  in  imagining  the  future  in  this  country,  which 
looked  toward  the  acquirement  of  Florida  and  of 
Cuba.  His  one  desire  seemed  to  be  an  harmonious 
balance  of  the  forces  of  society;  on  paper  this  is  easy 
to  contemplate,  shorn  of  its  human  spirit  of  aggran 
dizement  which  brought  the  tariff  within  reach  of 
grasping  politicians,  shorn  likewise  of  the  unfailing 
principle  of  compensation  which  is  as  dominant  in  the 
affairs  of  commerce  as  in  the  affairs  of  the  spirit.  He 
little  knew  how  prophetic  was  his  review  of  the  1820 
Compromise  when  he  wrote,  "  I  considered  it  at  once 
as  the  knell  of  the  Union." 

Monticello  became  the  center  of  social  interest;  in 
fact,  Jefferson's  hospitality  was  shamefully  imposed 
upon;  yet,  notwithstanding  outside  distractions,  he 
followed  the  politics  of  the  day,  planned  his  univer 
sity,  and  put  his  papers  in  order,  entrusting  his  future 
to  Madison,  to  whom  he  wrote :  "  You  have  been  a 
pillar  of  support  through  life.  Take  care  of  me  when 
dead."  This  effort  at  self-protection  was  largely  the 
result  of  his  dislike  of  Marshall's  "  Life  of  Washing 
ton,"  in  his  opinion  a  partisan  estimate. 

It  is  no  easy  matter  to  sum  up  the  many-sided 
nature  revealed  in  a  correspondence  of  such  enormous 
scope  as  Jefferson's ;  he  was  affectionate  and  attractive, 
sensitive  and  sentimental,  shrewd  and  sincere,  to 
quote  Morse ;  his  radicalism  of  mind  went  farther  than 
his  actual  radical  action,  while  his  motives  were  usually 
sound  and  disinterested.  It  is  quite  natural  that  a 
man  of  such  temperament  should  pose,  but  his  popular 
concern  was  fundamentally  great,  while  his  opposition 
to  a  concentration  of  power,  as  well  as  his  hatred  for 
New  England  business  methods,  fitted  in  with  the 
tenor  of  Southern  thought.  His  opposition  to  internal 
improvement  carried  on  by  the  general  government 
indicated  his  regard  for  states'  rights,  and  even  sug- 


138    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

gested  his  belief  in  disunion  on  this  account. 
Yet  he  did  not  reject  the  idea  of  internal  improve 
ments,  per  se. 

Jefferson  was  a  healthy  combination  of  qualities, 
mental  and  physical;  he  was  born  to  theory,  his  in 
terests  were  so  widespread  as  to  seem  almost  incon 
gruous.  This  framer  of  state  documents,  this  man 
of  public  trust — even  though  at  heart  he  was  more 
given  to  retirement — was  also  a  writer  on  Anglo-Sax 
on,  and  on  the  "  Art  of  Poesy."  If  the  financial  schemes 
of  Hamilton  were  muddled  in  his  brain,  he  was  a  con 
stant  investigator  of  religious  matters,  not  for  the 
sake  of  answering  any  charges  of  atheism  brought 
against  him,  but  because  he  was  personally  concerned 
with  the  problems  of  philosophy. 

By  innate  inclination  Jefferson  was  the  scholar;  his 
mental  scope  was  more  vigorous  than  Lanier's,  whose 
type  of  mind  was  not  restive  but  chivalric;  yet  it  is 
not  far-stretched  to  connect  the  names  of  these  two  as 
typifying  the  forecast  of  the  university  function  on 
one  hand,  and  of  the  university  scholar  on  the  other. 
I  say,  Jefferson  was  primarily  the  scholar,  with  a 
streak  of  the  practical,  a  great  strain  of  the  prophetical, 
and  the  decided  inclination  of  the  dreamer.  In  some 
respects  his  educational  activity — a  blend  of  the  utili 
tarian  and  the  theorist — foreshadowed  the  modern 
educator — a  President  Eliot  of  Harvard  founding  the 
University  of  Virginia. 

Jefferson  left  a  political  impress  upon  the  South, 
and  likewise  influenced  to  a  large  extent  the  cultural 
phase  of  its  civilization;  but,  as  in  so  many  of  his 
plans,  he  was  far  beyond  his  times.  Perhaps  it  is  unfair 
to  lay  to  his  discredit  the  whole  of  the  ill-will  heaped 
upon  William  and  Mary  College  after  the  Revolution ; 
nevertheless,  Jefferson's  interest  was  soon  deflected 
from  his  alm-a  mater,  and  once  involved  in  this  other 
institution  which  was  to  be,  in  his  mind,  an  intellectual 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  139 

capital  to  offset  Washington,  the  political  center,  his 
every  act  drained  the  strength  of  the  older  college, 
which  from  that  time  declined.  But  William  and  Mary 
College  occupied  a  big  place  in  the  making  of  the 
Union.  H.  A.  Adams  writes :  "  In  Virginia  the  his 
toric  process  began  with  English  traditions  of  family 
culture;  it  developed  through  the  personal  adminis 
tration  of  rural  estates,  through  vestry  meetings  and 
county  courts,  and  the  House  of  Burgesses.  The 
evolution  of  a  higher  class  of  politicians,  professional 
men  and  cultivated  gentlemen,  was  first  accomplished 
at  Williamsburg,  that  school  of  citizens,  churchmen, 
and  statesmen."  There  is  no  detracting  from  its 
initial  position  as  an  object  lesson  in  government, — 
"  a  unique  seminary  of  history  and  politics — of  history 
in  the  very  making,  of  politics  in  the  praxis." 

No  doubt,  the  Episcopal  preponderance  at  William 
and  Mary  looked  askance  at  Jefferson's  scheme  of 
education,  which  also  drew  distrust  from  the  dis 
senters.  But  as  Jefferson  himself  declared,  he  disap 
proved  of  the  Gothic  idea  which  clung  to  the  past ;  in 
learning,  religion,  government,  he  would  trust  to  the 
future.  General  education  in  Virginia  would  have 
profited  by  heeding  some  of  Jefferson's  democratic 
notions,  if  not  by  adoption  of  his  principles,  at  least  in 
emulation  of  his  activity. 

It  was  Washington's  one  idea  to  keep  American 
youth  from  seeking  foreign  instruction ;  however  broad 
Jefferson's  idea  was,  in  which  he  liberally  balanced  the 
practical  with  the  ideal,  in  which  he  generously  sought 
the  advice  of  outsiders  upon  the  matter  of  a  curric 
ulum,  he,  nevertheless,  had  a  political  fear  which  was 
only  a  hair  line  separated  from  a  sectional  fear  of 
Harvard  and  the  North — in  those  days  included  in  the 
one  opprobrious  term  of  Federalism.  In  1821,  he 
wrote :  "  How  many  of  our  youths  she  now  has, 
learning  the  lessons  of  anti-Missourianism,  I  know 


I4o    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

not;  but  a  gentleman,  lately  from  Princeton,  told  me 
he  saw  there  the  list  of  the  students  at  that  place,  and 
that  more  than  half  were  Virginians.  These  will  re 
turn  home,  no  doubt,  deeply  impressed  with  the  sacred 
principles  of  our  holy  alliance  of  restrictionists." 

After  the  Revolution,  William  and  Mary  College, 
as  a  state  institution,  lost  the  larger  part  of  its  rev 
enue;  then  events  seemed  to  be  pitted  against  its 
rehabiliment,  by  the  removal  of  the  capital  from  Wil- 
liamsburg  to  Richmond.  Had  it  accepted  Jefferson's 
proffer,  it  might  have  become  a  state  university  of 
some  large  importance,  but  rejecting  his  approach  in 
1779,  its  rival  came  into  being,  drawing  from  it  a 
considerable  proportion  of  its  student  body.  It  is 
significant  to  note  that  though  Southern  men  flocked 
North,  no  Northern  men  to  speak  of  flocked  South 
to  this  institution,  famed  as  the  home  of  statesmen. 
This  may  have  been  because  in  the  North,  the  people 
had  universities  of  their  own,  and  they  disliked  to  adapt 
themselves  to  a  climate  not  so  vigorous;  and  also  be 
cause  before  the  extensive  building  of  railroads,  travel 
between  sections  was  tedious.  But  there  were  in  addi 
tion  sectional  differences,  evident  thus  early,  differences 
largely  social,  inasmuch  as  they  affected  the  mental 
quickness  of  the  people;  differences  denominational, 
influencing  the  mental  daring  and  breadth  of  vision ; 
differences  political,  which  aggravated  the  spirit  of  the 
Civil  War. 

William  and  Mary  boasts  of  being  the  first  college 
in  America  with  a  complete  faculty ;  it  established  the 
honor  system,  characteristic  of  Southern  life,  and 
•which  Southern  men,  coming  North,  engrafted  on 
Princeton.  In  political  economy,  in  municipal  law,  in 
history,  in  modern  languages,  it  gave  its  energy  to  the 
initial  impulse  in  this  country.  But  lack  of  a  concen 
trated  effort  and  a  concentrated  population  had  effect 
upon  the  culture  of  the  people,  making  it  formal ;  to 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  141 

which  may  be  added  that  the  mental  attitude  was  one 
of  imperviousness  to  new  ideas. 

The  test  of  any  educational  system  is  to  be  found, 
not  in  its  effect  upon  a  particular  type  of  mind,  but 
in  how  far  it  satisfies  the  democratic  level  of  so 
ciety.  Jefferson  not  only  foresaw  the  modern  uni 
versity,  but  he  realized  the  need  of  general  instruc 
tion.  "  I  do  most  anxiously  wish  to  see  the  highest 
degrees  of  education  given  to  the  higher  degrees  of 
genius,  and  to  all  degrees  of  it,  so  much  as  may  en 
able  them  to  read  and  understand  what  is  going  on  in 
the  world,  and  to  keep  it  right.  .  .  ."  But  in  an  aris 
tocratic  society  where  there  were  such  distinctions  be 
tween  classes,  where  the  denominational  idea  struggled 
with  the  scientific  fact,  education  could  not  gain  wide 
spread  acceptance  where  community  interest  was  still 
of  a  feudal  nature. 

Riding  from  Monticello  to  the  university,  Jefferson's 
keen  superintendence  of  the  executive  details  stamped 
him  in  act,  if  not  in  name,  as  the  first  president  of  the 
institution,  but  in  reality,  not  until  Dr.  Alderman  was 
installed  in  1905  was  the  Board  of  Visitors  dominated 
by  an  official  head.  Yet  notwithstanding,  Jefferson's 
spirit  stamped  the  university  from  the  very  outset. 
His  plans  were  Utopian ;  restive  himself  under  any  in 
tellectual  restraint,  we  find  him  supporting  the  elective 
system;  himself  free  from  religious  dogma,  his  chief 
concern  in  establishing  a  faculty  was  to  discard  the 
chair  of  divinity,  but  if  possible  to  establish  a  profes 
sorship  for  each  tenet  of  faith.  Those  were  the  days 
when  America,  not  quite  sure  of  the  existence  of  its 
American  character,  opposed  the  appointment  of  for 
eign  professors ;  when,  after  procuring  a  man  for  an 
intellectual  post,  his  pure  knowledge  was  tested,  not 
by  its  general  service  but  by  its  spiritual  background. 
Jefferson's  correspondence  indicates  his  struggle  to 
circumvent  opposition  on  these  points. 


I42    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

Thus,  the  importance  of  such  a  personality  as  we 
have  attempted  to  compass  in  these  few  pages  stands 
self-evident.  We  glean  of  Jefferson's  position 
through  his  own  writing,  through  the  opinions  of 
others.  The  character  of  the  literature  he  created  was 
of  the  statesman's  type  without  the  orator's  eloquence; 
it  was  not  aesthetic,  though  more  than  any  other  man 
of  his  period,  Jefferson's  pliability  of  spirit,  his  catho 
licity  of  taste,  gave  a  certain  light  grace  and  flowing 
ease  to  his  style.  The  substance  of  his  idea  showed 
imagination;  the  expression  of  that  idea,  sometimes 
close  in  treatment,  at  other  times  general  in  statement, 
was  never  florid,  after  he  had  passed  the  period  of 
youthful  love  and  Ossianic  admiration.  What  is  most 
significant  about  these  men  born  of  the  South  is  the 
fact  that  out  of  a  civilization,  rural  and  paternalistic, 
emanated  constructive  minds  of  such  different  expres 
sion  as  are  to  be  found  in  Henry,  Washington,  and 
Jefferson.  The  importance  of  Madison,  though  indi 
vidually  distinctive  and  different,  is  traditionally  of 
the  same  caliber. 


CHAPTER   VI 

REVOLUTIONARY   LITERATURE 
POETRY  AND  POETS 


IT  is  impossible  to  separate  the  men  of  the  Revolu 
tion  from  the  Constitutional  Statesmen  of  the  early 
national  period.  We  pass  from  one  to  the  other  with 
the  flow  of  events,  and  reach  the  conclusion  that  very 
largely  the  distinction  between  types  must  be  measured 
by  the  sociological,  economic  transference  of  empha 
sis  from  one  factor  to  another.  We  have  dwelt  upon 
three  distinct  phases  of  the  constructive  mind,  and 
while  it  is  true  that  what  we  might  say  regarding  some 
of  the  equally  distinctive  contemporaries  would  add 
but  little  to  the  general  conception,  still  the  individual 
energy  of  Marshall  and  Madison — statesmen  of  the 
most  solid  caliber — is  of  the  first  importance. 

In  studying  certain  features  of  Madison's  career, 
the  steady  development  of  sectional  differences,  the 
accentuation  of  the  political  presence  of  the  negro,  the 
variation  of  economic  interests  which  colored  the  de 
bates  on  imposts  for  the  support  of  the  young  govern 
ment — all  of  these  elements  conduced  to  draw  the  lines 
of  political  estrangement  further  than  were  already 
drawn  in  the  philosophical  division  of  Federalists  and 
Republicans. 

Through  all  this  imminent  period,  Madison,  with 
his  vast  command  of  constitutional  law,  was  necessary 
to  the  adjustment  which  was  taking  place  slowly,  and 
amidst  ominous  threats  of  civil  war  and  disunion. 
The  state  papers  gathered  together  in  "  The  Federal- 


144    THE   LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

ist "  formed  solid  argument,  and  what  is  true  of  Madi 
son  as  a  writer  here,  is  true  of  him  as  a  stylist  in  his 
letters  and  other  documents.  "If  there  was  no  play 
of  fancy/'  writes  his  biographer,  Gay,  "  there  was  no 
forgctfulness  of  facts.  If  there  was  lack  of  imagina 
tion,  there  was  none  of  historical  illustration.  ...  If 
manner  was  forgotten,  method  was  not."  In  a  litera 
ture  where  proof  was  the  essential  object,  where  per 
suasion,  close  logic,  interpretation,  represented  the 
chief  end,  one  hardly  need  look  for  aesthetics. 

Yet  the  solid  reasoning  of  the  Revolutionary  states 
men  was  not  without  its  magnificence  as  literature — 
the  classic  of  legal  interpretation  is  symbolized  to  this 
day  in  the  name  of  Marshall.  In  them,  as  yet,  the 
fundamental  was  not  obscured  by  sectional  legislation. 
The  historical  figures  of  the  next  period  \vere  brought 
up  in  close  contact  with  this  broad  type  of  citizen.  It 
was  the  mysterious  destiny  of  peoples  that  resulted 
in  the  defection  of  John  C.  Calhoun,  some  would  even 
say  of  the  political  apostasy  of  Madison  himself. 

In  passing  from  the  social  forces  of  this  initial  epoch 
of  a  nation's  life  to  those  of  a  later  time,  we  are  able 
to  carry  with  us  all  the  incipient  elements  leading  to  an 
eventual  civil  war.  In  fact,  Randolph,  whose  life  was 
a  peculiar  mixture  of  consuming  egotism  and  ar- 
r-'Lrance,  with  brilliancy  and  momentary  sanity,  had  in 
his  views  on  the  Constitution,  suggested  the  possible 
erection  of  a  Southern  Confederacy.  Events  which 
li-d  to  territorial  expansion,  to  political  and  economic 
adjustment,  must  necessarily  be  considered  in  connec 
tion  with  the  rise  of  the  Lower  South — a  condition 
which  characterizes  the  ante-bellum  period  and  marks 
the  statesmen  of  the  time.  Every  Southern  man  of 
public  life  left  his  opinion  as  to  the  ultimate  meaning 
of  the  Constitution.  The  Revolutionary  leaders  passed 
readily  from  the  field  to  Congress ;  they  possessed  the 
ease  of  adaptability;  they  could  sign  Declarations  and 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  145 

interpret  new  laws;  they  could  discard  unwise  imposi 
tion  and  interpret  for  themselves.  The  pen  was  a 
ready  instrument,  unconscious  of  beauty,  but  aglow 
with  the  idea.  George  Mason,  David  Ramsay  and 
others  uttered  their  opinions  with  the  conviction  that 
resulted  in  action.  This  was  a  moving  literature, 
though  it  may  not  now  be  of  vast  aesthetic  worth — 
its  value  being  permanently  historical  in  its  broadest 
sense.  But  if  the  test  of  writing  lies  in  its  effect,  then 
the  pamphleteers,  beginning  with  Richard  Bland;  the 
orators,  beginning  with  Henry ;  and  the  statesmen,  be 
ginning  with  Washington,  are  types  of  power, 
dynamically  measured  in  their  voluminous  papers. 
Such  literature  won  an  eternal  principle  of  liberty  and 
established  a  Union  on  that  principle.  This  is  not  a 
little  to  claim  for  any  species  of  authorship.  And,  as 
compared  with  the  same  species  just  before  the  Civil 
War,  we  shall  note  philosophy  passing  into  expediency. 


il 

It  is  wrong,  however,  to  regard  literally  the  state 
ment  of  Mr.  Sears  that  the  literary  energy  which  had 
in  the  colonial  period  been  largely  engaged  in  "  theo 
logical  athletics,"  was  now  to  be  wholly  centered  on  a 
discussion  of  political  rights.  There  were  other  in^ 
tellectual  activities  in  the  South ;  the  historian  on  one 
hand,  the  doctor  on  the  other,  were  both  working  in 
the  local  spirit.  Besides  which,  the  scientific  tendency 
was  manifest  in  the  societies  which,  for  instance,  were 
organized  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  even  as  in 
Philadelphia.  If  in  the  North,  Franklin  was  framing 
his  rules  of  life,  Jefferson  in  the  South  was  doing  the 
same.  If  Franklin  was  engaged  in  scientific  investi 
gation  and  experiment,  Madison,  at  least,  was  con 
cerned  in  paleontology.  The  mental  and  the  commer 
cial  states,  strange  as  the  connection  may  seem,  had  to 


146    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

contend  with  much  the  same  drawbacks.  When 
Madison  was  fighting  for  Southern  ports  of  entry,  as 
much  to  encourage  commerce  in  the  South  as  to  raise 
a  revenue  for  the  government,  he  did  not  realize  that 
slavery,  the  land  system,  the  class  distinction,  the 
isolated  population,  the  discouragement  of  cities,  were 
serving  to  affect  the  Southern  temperament,  which  was 
already  colored  to  some  extent  by  conditions  of 
climate.  The  literature  of  the  South  was  limited  in 
just  the  way  in  which  the  civilization  itself  was 
restricted.  Hence,  while  expression  may  reflect  the 
life,  it  does  not  adequately  measure  the  richness  of  that 
life  or  the  full  activity  of  the  people.  The  literary 
romanticism  of  the  South  was  but  a  faint  reflex  of 
the  deep  sentiment  prompting  action  and  directing 
domestic  relationship. 

Henry  Laurens  may  be  taken  as  representative  of 
one  kind  of  writer.  Preceding  the  Revolution,  he  was 
a  non-conformist  as  far  as  aggressiveness  was  con 
cerned,  living  up  to  his  neutral  policy  and  showing  a 
determined  loyalty  to  the  King.  He  was  of  Huguenot 
strain,  and  held  in  South  Carolina  a  position  of  equal 
importance  with  Rutledge  and  Drayton.  In  all  his 
dealings,  his  honesty  was  scrupulous,  his  judgment 
careful,  so  careful  indeed  that,  during  the  strenuous 
moments  of  the  Stamp  Act,  when  violence  came  close 
upon  petition,  he  was  accused  of  being  the  King's 
man. 

But  Laurens  only  reflected  the  caution  of  many 
colonists  of  similar  mind;  he  sought  adjustment,  not 
contenting  himself  to  wait  for  the  issue.  In  London, 
during  1774,  he  petitioned  Parliament,  warning  in 
dividual  members  of  England's  impolitic  attitude,  him 
self  sincerely  eager  for  reconciliation.  Yet  he  did  not 
advocate  the  unwise  taxation,  however  much  person 
ally  he  was  willing  to  submit  to  it,  as  his  correspond 
ence  will  indicate.  His  position  was  not  easy  nor  was  it 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  147 

agreeable  to  have  his  house  searched,  as  it  was  by  sus 
pecting  citizens  during  1765-  Only  an  exemplary 
nature  could  view  the  incident  in  light  manner.  "  Is 
it  not  amazing,"  he  wrote  afterward  with  naivete, 
"  that  such  a  number  of  men,  many  of  them,  heated 
with  liquor  &  all  armed  with  Cutlasses  &  Clubs  did  not 
do  one  penny  damage  to  my  Garden,  not  even  to  walk 
over  a  bed?" 

Laurens,  however,  despite  his  slow  determination, 
was  gradually  brought  around  to  the  support  of  the 
colonies;  he  succeeded  Hancock  as  President  of  the 
Continental  Congress,  and  in  1779  was  on  his  way  to 
Holland  with  papers  from  the  new  government,  when 
he  was  captured  by  the  English  and  imprisoned  in  the 
Tower  for  two  years. 

Again  we  find  an  instance  here  of  Southern  abhor 
rence  of  slavery.  Laurens  declared  to  his  son  in  1776 
that  were  it  not  for  laws  preventing,  he  would  manu 
mit  many  of  the  so-called  "  Chattel "  (a  term  which 
figured  in  the  apportionment  of  population,  when 
Madison  proposed  the  3-5  ratio  between  black  and 
white)  and  do  away  with  the  entail  of  slavery. 

The  historian's  point  of  view  is  discovered  in  most 
of  what  Laurens  wrote ;  he  was  accurate,  logical,  pene 
trative.  Not  only  that,  but  his  style  had  the  commend 
able  quality  of  lucidity.  He  was  tolerant,  and  a  most 
worthy  father,  anxious  for  his  son,  residing  in  Lon 
don,  to  reach  his  own  conclusions  as  to  the  right  or 
wrong  of  the  colonies.  His  motive  was  strong  and 
pure,  his  observation  keen.  His  correspondence  was 
carried  on  with  such  men  as  Morris,  Washington,  and 
Adams;  he  could  be  matter-of-fact,  kind,  sarcastic, 
picturesque  and  vivid.  His  mind  was  full  of  dignity, 
and  often  his  expressions  were  sprightly.  The  while 
he  was  held  in  the  Tower,  with  insults  heaped  upon 
him,  with  the  pressure  of  bribery  brought  to  bear  upon 
him,  he  never  lost  either  his  high  seriousness,  or  his 


148    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

interest  in  affairs  of  state.  Even  as  a  student,  his 
time  in  prison  was  spent,  first  in  reading  Gibbon,  and 
afterwards  in  penning  reflections  on  what  he  had  read 
—which  worthy  occupation  brought  him  the  praise  of 
Edmund  Burke.  To  the  latter  belongs  the  credit  of 
seeking  Laurens's  release,  which  was  effected  in  an  ex 
change  with  Cornwallis. 

Two  qualities  about  the  writing  of  Laurens  are  evi 
dent  at  once ;  first,  turning  to  his  description  after  the 
battle  of  Brandywine,  sprightliness  is  heightened  by 
dramatic  crispness,  by  short  sentences  not  jerky  in 
effect,  but  essentially  active,  panoramic.  But  as  a 
balance,  he  was  also  sane,  governed  by  common  sense 
and  farsightedness.  In  an  official  capacity,  during 
1781,  he  wrote  a  descriptive  resume  of  the  chief  char 
acteristics  of  South  Carolina,  dwelling  upon  the 
South's  politeness  of  manner,  her  hospitality,  her  com 
fortable  homes,  her  pride  in  agriculture.  He  did  not 
see  the  extravagance  of  her  trading  and  credit  system, 
and  in  accordance  with  the  Southern  view,  he  was  con 
vinced  that  though  forced  to  manufacture  necessities 
during  the  Revolution,  the  states  in  that  section  would 
soon  return  to  their  rural  occupations. 

We  may  regard  Laurens  as  a  typical  colonial  con- 
servatist,  whose  non-conformist  policy  drew  upon  him 
the  distrust,  in  the  beginning,  of  his  neighbors,  and 
likewise  helped  to  formulate  English  opinion  of  him, 
fairly  represented  in  such  phrases  as  "  Whatever  an 
American  may  be  in  private  life,  honor  and  good  faith 
enter  not  into  his  ideas  of  a  politician." 

In  many  ways,  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  sum  up 
this  literature  in  a  few  words,  but  while  we  might 
thus  fix,  in  chart  fashion,  the  trend  of  Revolutionary 
letters,  we  would  far  from  succeed  in  gaining  the  spirit 
behind  it.  For  the  volumes  are  pregnant  with  fresh 
memories,  with  a  charm  of  personal  narrative  and 
close  contact,  filled  with  expressions  whose  very  quaint- 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  149 

ness  is  fraught  with  the  essence  of  a  personal  life.  A 
pretty  monograph  might  be  written,  connecting  the 
names  of  Evelyn  Byrd,  Eliza  Wilkinson,  and 
Dolly  Madison — one  the  striking  belle  of  colonial 
manners,  the  other  a  vivacious  widow  of  parlous  war 
times,  and  the  last,  young  even  at  four  score  years,  a 
graceful  diplomat  of  the  early  national  period. 

Little  is  known  of  the  young  Mrs.  Wilkinson,  of 
Charleston,  whose  twelve  letters  have  been  saved  from 
the  "  damps "  of  time ;  but  enough  of  the  woman 
saturates  these  yellow  pages  to  give  us  no  mean  opin 
ion  of  her  intellect,  and  to  impress  us  with  her  clever 
ness  in  the  use  of  the  pen.  She  did  not  wish  to  hide 
her  feminine  qualities,  she  was  naively  proud  of  her 
ability  to  discuss  matters  of  importance.  It  is  this  rapid 
shifting  between  these  two  points  that  lends  permanent 
value  to  her  dialogue. 

The  style  of  these  letters  bears  all  the  marks  of 
gentle  courtesy,  of  gay  humor,  of  surface  prejudice, 
and  of  social  pride,  that  stamped  the  Southern  matron 
of  the  day.  Given  to  moralizing,  she  resorts  to 
apostrophes  at  all  times,  in  accordance  with  the  ac 
cepted  attitude  of  the  period;  in  attending  those  be 
neath  her  in  rank,  she  condescended  with  an  inborn 
grace  that  enriched  her  possession  of  refinement,  even 
though  proclaiming  in  the  same  breath  the  falsity  of 
her  standard. 

One  might  almost  claim  for  Mrs.  Wilkinson  in  these 
letters  the  first  attempt  to  fix  the  peculiar  dialect  of  the 
negro,  an  experiment  which  succeeded  about  as  well  as 
Poe's  conventional  attempts  in  "  The  Gold  Bug." 
She  very  well  expressed  the  general  distrust  of  the 
negro  by  the  white  man,  a  fact  which,  in  part,  she  at 
tributed  to  the  calculating  plans  of  the  British. 

Mrs.  Wilkinson,  as  a  widow,  cannot  escape  beim; 
called  gay;  oftentimes  she  was  wholly  consumed  by 
reflection,  but  whether  thus  or  in  the  midst  of  epis- 


150    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

tolary  chat,  she  still  retains  a  pleasant  banter  which  is 
deeper  than  style,  and  at  the  basis  of  character.  The 
picture  of  her  under  all  circumstances  is  attractive, 
whether  she  is  losing  her  slipper  while  escaping"  the 
approaching  British,  or  whether  she  is  actually  under 
examination,  evading  the  cross-questions  of  a  pursu 
ing  body  of  redcoats.  She  quotes  verse  from  Young 
and  others,  she  is  ready  with  her  Bible,  and  familiar 
with  her  Ovid  and  Homer.  She  is  affected  lightly  by 
external  condition,  all  the  while  mentally  aware  of 
the  actual  perspective ;  in  this  lies  the  poignancy  of  her 
humor. 

Of  course,  one  must  estimate  these  letters  from 
their  letter  value;  they  are  girlish  confidences,  tinged 
with  some  of  the  experience  that  shoxvs  a  woman  pos 
sessed  of  an  eternally  youthful  heart — grace  shot 
through  with  the  humanity  that  is  the  only  true  cul 
ture.  The  personal  tension  of  the  Southern  campaign 
is  couched  in  these  few  pages  with  suggestions  as  to 
all  the  serious  topics  filling  the  minds  of  the  emanci 
pated  colonists.  But  sweet  and  tender  though  she 
was,  Mrs.  Wilkinson  nevertheless  would  not  bend  to 
the  feminine  yoke  of  "  domestic  concerns  "  alone.  She 
was  against  those  authors  who  regarded  the  feminine 
sex  as  "  contemptible  earth  worms  " ;  what  she  wanted 
was  liberty  of  thought!  Dolly  Madison  was  to  hear 
further  on  this  subject  when  Harriet  Martineau  came 
to  America. 

And  so,  this  "merry  widow"  with  her  girlish  de 
light  in  men,  her  sentiment  of  heart,  her  feminine  dis 
like  of  the  horrid  war  of  cannon,  her  quick  response  to 
the  lights  and  shadows  of  victory  and  defeat,  proves 
delightful  reading  and  conveys  a  good  measure  of  the 
weight  of  war  which  fell  upon  the  Southern  home. 

Another  woman  of  different  temperament  is  worthy 
of  our  consideration  for  three  special  reasons:  first, 
as  Martha  Laurens  (1759-1811),  she  serves  as  a 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  151 

literary  link  between  her  father,  Henry  Laurens,  and 
her  husband,  Dr.  David  Ramsay;  second,  because  in 
her  spiritual  fervor  she  represents  the  spirit  of  the  age 
which  fostered  such  literature  as  was  written  by  Mrs. 
Trimmer  and  Isaac  Watts,  which  approved  of  such 
educational  methods  as  Rousseau  framed  on  natural 
istic  tendencies;  and  third,  her  literary  reliques  being" 
carefully  and  tenderly  overlooked  and  edited  by  her 
husband,  present  a  phase  of  Dr.  Ramsay's  character, 
other  than  his  medical  and  historical  tastes. 

The  little  volume  of  "  Memories,"  seared  in  leaf, 
and  leather-worn  in  binding,  exudes  religious  fervor, 
contemning  the  flesh,  and  dedicating  the  soul  to  God. 
Diary  confessions,  religious  programs,  long  private 
meditations  in  the  vein  of  Mrs.  Trimmer, — these  are 
the  motives  of  the  pages,  though  the  faint  aroma  of 
domestic  care,  of  practical  Christianity,  of  external  in 
tercourse,  is  evident.  In  the  letters  from  Laurens,  we 
note  the  excellent  father,  and  a  family  devotion  which 
is  charming  to  contemplate.  But  in  women  of  such 
avowed  religiosity  as  Mrs.  Ramsay,  it  is  difficult  to 
grasp  the  intellectual  strength  save  in  the  record  of 
duties  actually  performed.  Mrs.  Ramsay  was  an  ex 
ceptional  mother — truly  a  Mrs.  Trimmer  transplanted, 
whose  sweetness  sometimes  dimmed  the  light,  but 
whose  presence  made  the  world  a  better  place. 

Now  and  then  in  these  letters  we  catch  a  tiny  vein 
of  loving  humor,  of  poetic  feeling.  As  literature, 
which  they  were  never  intended  to  be,  they  must  be 
treated  with  a  kindly  imagination;  thousands  have 
written  as  she,  but  she  stands  in  old-fashioned  contrast 
with  Mrs.  Wilkinson  and  Mrs.  Madison,  and  as  such, 
represents  a  side-light  on  Southern  character.  Tem 
perament  of  this  kind  stands  the  test  of  the  heart  which 
speaks  the  same  language  all  the  time,  despite  the  want 
of  vigorous  style. 

The  old-fashioned  reticence  of  Ramsay  in  editing 


152    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

these  letters  of  his  second  wife  is  fair  indication  of  his 
manly  nature  and  conjugal  devotion;  he  attempts  no 
more  than  a  commentary  in  his  notes  which  comprise 
a  large  part  of  the  interest  in  this  small  book.  He 
was  a  person  of  wide  activity;  as  fighter,  as  surgeon, 
as  historian  and  medical  writer,  his  conscientiousness 
and  retentive  mind,  his  method  and  thoroughness  gave 
him  distinction. 

The  historical  method  according  to  modern  scholar 
ship  was  not  the  method  of  the  early  Southern  histo 
rian  ;  he  was  too  near  the  event  not  to  allow  imagina 
tion  and,  in  some  instances,  personal  participation  to 
humanize  fact.  History  was  often  written  as  recrea 
tion  from  political  duties;  thus  Ramsay,  in  preparing 
his  volumes  on  the  Revolution  and  on  Washington, 
took  advantage  of  his  congressional  duties  to  be  near 
the  state  papers  which  he  most  needed.  The  histo 
rian's  manner  was  easy  in  those  days;  it  was  full  of 
philosophical  side  distinctions;  it  was  framed  in 
courtesy  that  fain  would  keep  from  wounding  ears  by 
the  recital  of  disagreeable  details.  As  a  physician, 
Ramsay  was  careful  to  study  the  physical  requirements 
of  Southern  climate;  as  a  student,  his  comparative  at 
tempts  revealed  to  him  certain  limitations  of  the 
Southern  life;  but  so  thoroughly  imbued  was  he  with 
the  Southern  habit  of  life,  that  he  placed  extra 
emphasis  upon  the  unbounded  advantages  of  agricul 
ture. 

He  was  a  man  who  pleaded  for  enlightenment  be 
cause  of  the  evil  effects  of  mental  density — truly  a 
proper  soil  for  the  craftiness  of  a  possible  Catiline.  He 
spoke  in  terms  of  lessons  to  be  drawn  from  the  past ; 
he  wrote  as  though  events  of  the  present  must  contain 
lessons  for  the  future.  The  historical  style  was 
closely  allied  to  narrative;  what  it  lost  in  exactitude, 
it  gained  in  ease  and  picturesqueness ;  it  held  just  a 
little  of  the  orator's  appeal,  but  it  did  not  sacrifice  the 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  153 

source  for  the  sake  of  invention,  which  was  the  chief 
historical  weakness  of  Weems,  that  Southern  jack-of- 
all-trades. 

But  as  men  of  practical  legislative  experience,  Ram 
say,  Drayton,  and  Wirt  recognized  the  importance  of 
public  documents  in  the  preparation  of  history  and  of 
biography.  Men  with  such  minds  as  Madison  and 
Marshall  could  retain  the  necessary  reference  equip 
ment,  but  even  as  Jefferson  realized  the  necessity  for 
public  libraries  in  order  to  spread  enlightenment  among 
the  people,  so  it  was  soon  found  necessary,  on  South 
ern  initiative,  to  agitate  the  establishment  of  a  Con 
gressional  library. 

Yet,  as  Mr.  Page  so  well  declares  in  his  essay  on 
"  The  Want  of  a  History  of  the  Southern  People,"  up 
to  the  time  of  the  establishment  of  the  Southern  and 
State  Historical  Societies,  the  South  had  been  lax  in 
the  preservation  of  records.  The  value  of  the  history 
written  in  the  days  of  Ramsay,  Drayton,  and  Wirt  is 
due  only  in  part  to  accuracy,  but  also  to  the  fact  that 
to  a  less  degree  such  records  may  be  taken  by  the 
present-day  historian  as  documentary  evidence  on  one 
hand,  and  as  representing  the  advance  in  mental  atti 
tude  on  the  other.  We  shall  have  something  to  say 
later  of  the  awakening  of  the  critical  conscience  in  the 
South,  of  the  extended  attention  being  given  to  that 
life  of  the  South  which  is  being  based  on  documentary 
evidence  as  well  as  on  native  feeling. 

No  one  can  ignore  Ramsay  in  the  study  of  South 
Carolina  or  in  the  contemplation  of  early  colonial  and 
Revolutionary  America.  From  1801,  when  he  issued 
his  "Life  of  Washington,"  till  his  death  in  1815,  he 
alternated  between  medicine  and  history.  Born  in 
Pennsylvania,  educated  at  Princeton,  yet  all  his  inter 
ests  were  identified  with  the  South.  He  delivered  many 
orations,  wrote  on  religious  topics  and  was  foremost 
in  philanthropic  and  social  schemes. 


154    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

And,  even  as  Ramsay  in  the  practice  of  the  his 
torical  method,  so  William  Henry  Drayton  drew  upon 
experience — a  full  life  of  rapidly  shifting  responsibility 
from  1742-1779.  Both  he  and  Ramsay  were  pam 
phleteers  ;  they  were  in  like  sense  gatherers  of  histor 
ical  data,  recorders  of  personal  impressions,  utterers  of 
personal  opinion — which  constitute  only  one  part  of  the 
historian's  duty.  Drayton  and  his  son,  John,  rose  to 
high  office  in  their  native  State,  and  the  latter  it  was 
who  made  use  of  his  father's  papers  in  a  book  on  the 
Revolution  in  South  Carolina.  Once  more,  in  this 
matter  of  the  historian  in  the  early  South,  we  find  pub 
lic  life  ascendant  over  the  life  of  letters.  Men  were 
pamphleteers  because  it  was  all  essential  to  be  so ;  they 
were  orators  because  the  people  required  direct  ap 
peal  ;  they  were  letter  writers  because  no  other  means  so 
convenient  were  known  by  which  they  could  convey 
ideas, — a  difficulty,  later,  partly  surmounted  by  the 
widespread  reporting  of  the  modern  newspaper.  The 
times  required  statesmen,  for  only  by  such  may  a  nation 
be  permanently  established.  Literature  was  secondary 
in  the  South  during  Revolutionary  days.  I  am  omit 
ting  extended  reference  to  Wirt  here,  for  the  reason 
that  his  attitude  in  "The  British  Spy"  was  outside 
the  war  spirit,  was  indeed  created  with  an  art  perspec 
tive  more  nearly  akin  to  Irving  in  its  artistic  impulse. 
It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  in  reaching  the  last  form 
of  expression — poetry — to  find  the  songs  and  ballads 
saturated  with  the  fire  of  the  moment,  popular  with 
the  ring  of  determination, — a  poetry  which  jingles, 
snaps,  bites,  but  does  not  lilt. 


in 

It  is  difficult  to  find  Southern  characteristics  in  the 
poetry  of  this  period;  the  Civil  War  was  productive 
of  more  real  sectional  feeling  and  musical  fervor, 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  155 

wherever  the  poet  dealt  with  purely  local  sentiment; 
but  in  the  American  nation,  the  national  or  the  sec 
tional  verse  has  never  been  of  high  quality,  yet  not 
withstanding,  it  has  represented  intense  feeling.  In 
the  South  there  was  no  man  to  compete  in  magnitude 
or  in  originality  with  Freneau,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact 
there  was  none  in  the  North.  Otherwise,  we  find  the 
same  character  of  verse  in  both  sections — stanzas  deal 
ing  distinctly  with  the  revolutionary  attitude,  and 
naturally  epitomizing  some  local  activity.  We  do  not 
find  the  jinglers  in  New  England  penning  lines  about 
the  Belles  of  Williamsburg,  but  rather  extolling  the 
homespun  declarations  of  their  own  maids.  On  the 
other  hand  the  poets,  North  and  South,  made  lively  use 
of  the  universal  topics  of  tea,  taxation,  and  Toryism. 
Both  sections  confronted  a  delicate  problem  of  loyal 
sympathies  in  the  face  of  patriotic  enthusiasms ;  they 
interchanged  meters,  parodied  the  same  English  ballad 
pieces,  as  well  as  parodying  themselves. 

Poetry  was  the  means  of  mental  relief;  other  forms 
had  demanded  serious  thought,  weighty  wording,  but 
here  one  could  be  gay,  reckless,  and  grotesquely 
humorous.  The  feelings  ran  riot,  either  in  grandiose 
expression  of  patriotism,  burlesque  innuendoes,  or 
satiric  broadsides.  The  commendable  feature  of  such 
composition  is  its  sincerity,  its  childlike  impulsiveness, 
which,  as  Moore  writes,  quoting  an  authority,  "  just 
set  ...  poetical  lathes  a-turning  and  twisted  out  bal 
lads  and  songs  for  the  good  of  the  cause."  The  per 
sonal  attitude  in  the  stanzas  only  served  to  give  these 
crude  ballads  a  more  human  snap;  it  made  no  differ 
ence  whether  or  not  the  rhyme  endings  were  correct, 
or  whether  the  separate  lines  could  not  stand  the  test 
of  good  rhythm;  the  whole  effect  was  there,  repre 
sented  a  big  impulse ;  it  was  easily  memorized,  and 
sung  to  some  old  and  familiar  melody. 

The  first  impression  of  this  type  of  poetry  in  the 


156    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

South  is  had  from  the  pen  of  two  graduates  of  Wil 
liam  and  Mary  College,  St.  George  Tucker  (1752- 
1828)  and  Dr.  James  McClurg  (1747-1825),  who,  as 
physician,  could  claim  authorship  of  a  treatise  on  the 
human  bile,  but  who  in  off  hours  attempted  graceful 
turns  after  the  manner  of  Suckling  and  Cowley,  nor 
was  his  associate  far  behind,  either  in  his  sentiment 
or  in  his  vers  de  societe.  An  attractive  phase  of 
Southern  literature  is  obtained  in  the  wide  contrasts 
existing  between  vocation  and  avocation;  to  one  who 
reads  "  The  Belles  of  Williamsburg,"  it  is  difficult 
to  reconcile  the  authorship  with  the  annotator  of 
Blackstone.  The  piece  is  descriptive  of  the  virtues  of 
many  damsels  whose  spirit,  beauty,  and  vivacity  have 
sported  through  the  veins  of  hot  youth,  and  sport  still, 
for  the  qualities  of  wit,  of  flashing  eye,  of  well-turned 
tapering  form  and  the  like,  are  elements  in  Nature's 
eternal  scheme  of  things.  So  successful  were  the 
stanzas  extolling  the  rarities  of  Laura,  Aspasia,  and 
Delia  that  a  sequel  was  soon  forthcoming  in  deference 
to  Isidora,  Leonella,  Brunetta,  and  Belinda,  warm 
in  beauty  though  fantastical  in  name.  The  composite 
picture  may  be  seen  in  one  stanza  which  runs : 

.     .     .    The  polished   cheek  that  glows, 
And  her's  the  velvet  lip, 
To  which  the  cherry  yields  its  hue, 
Its  plumpness  and  ambrosial  dew 
Which  even  Gods  might  sip. 

"  Virginia  Heart  of  Oaks,"  penned  about  the  time 
of  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  ( 1766)  and  based  on  a 
sailor's  song  by  Garrick,  rings  with  disquietude;  it  is 
incongruous  in  its  wording  and  its  simile,  but  un 
changeable  in  its  patriotic  intention;  even  in  its  bom 
bastic  phraseology  it  is  big  with  large  daring.  This 
poem,  if  it  may  be  so  called,  with  its  spirit,  well-typified 
in  the  couplet 


REVOLUTIONARY   PERIOD  157 

"  On  our  brow  while  we  laurel-crown'd  Liberty  wear, 
What  Englishmen  ought  we  Americans  dare"— 

was  inspiration  for  many  more  of  similar  meter  and 
sentiment.  When  the  Virginian,  J.  W.  Hewlings, 
wrote  (1775)  his  "American  Hearts  of  Oak,"  he 
must  have  had  by  him  the  Virginia  Gazette  of  May  2, 
1766. 

Already  these  colonies  in  their  verse  could  flaunt  a 
tradition  created  on  the  new  land.  "  Maryland's  Re 
solve"  (1774)  to  prepare  for  the  fray  held  aloft  the 
memory  of  Calvert.  On  the  one  hand,  we  find  ex 
tant  verses  on  Sullivan  Island  (1776),  a  humorous 
jingly  account  of  an  "Affair  of  Honor"  (1778)  be 
tween  Gen.  Robert  Howe  and  Lieut.  Gov.  Christopher 
Gadsden,  which  the  ambitious  muse  claimed  to  be  too 
good  a  story  for  simple  prose,  sir!  The  swing  of  the 
lines  is  thus : 

Quoth  H.  to  G  — 'Sir,  please  to  fire!' 
Quoth  G. — '  No,  pray  begin,  Sir ; ' 
And  truly  one  must  needs  admire, 
The  temper  they  were  in,  sir. 

The  campaign  in  the  South  was  productive  of  purely 
local  verse,  dealing  with  incidents  like  the  "  Siege  of 
Savannah"  (1779)  and  "Charleston"  (1780)  and 
'  The  Battle  of  King's  Mountain"  (1780),  but 
though  of  historical  bearing,  they  are  not,  as  Wegelin 
declares,  of  distinctive  Southern  tenor.  We  need  but 
note  that  here,  as  in  the  North,  there  were  party  songs, 
army  songs,  ballads  and  hymns — poems  whose  humor 
was  rough  but  good-natured,  crude  but  determined 
and  healthily  reflective  of  the  temper  of  a  roused  peo 
ple.  Ladies  added  their  voices  to  the  cause,  diffident 
in  their  apparent  forwardness  in  entering  public 
affairs. 

The  one  piece  which  has  any  claim  to  real  value  as 
poetry  is  a  tribute  to  Washington,  written  by  Charles 


158    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH- 

Henry  Wharton  (1779),  breathing  a  deep  rever 
ential  love  through  the  eighteenth  century  formal  style. 
No  Southern  poet  had  the  initiative  of  Freneau  to 
break  from  thorough  artificiality ;  in  fact  the  verse  of 
this  section,  while  true  in  sentiment,  oftentimes  limps 
through  carelessness.  Such  was  the  consuming  fault  of 
Richard  Dabney  (1787-1825),  the  rhythm  of  whose 
nature  was  jogged  sadly  out  of  tune  through  opium 
and  mint  julep.  In  its  poetry,  the  South  showed  a 
pretty  feeling,  but  not  always  the  strongest  strains  of 
her  Cavalier  bearing. 

A  full  study  of  Revolutionary  poetry  would  place 
the  South  no  inferior  to  the  North  in  productiveness, 
but  in  no  way  would  a  thorough  examination  change 
the  ultimate  conclusion  made  after  a  cursory  glance — 
that  the  doggerel  was  rich  in  impulse  but  poor  in 
quality.  Those  interested  in  the  drama  might  read 
"  Female  Patriotism ;  or,  the  Death  of  Joan  d'Arc," 
a  play  in  four  acts  by  John  Burk,  or  the  same  author's 
drama  on  "  Bunker  Hill ;  or,  the  Death  of  Warren," 
and  would  advance  not  further  than  John  Adams's  ex 
clamation  after  seeing  the  latter  piece :  "  Sir,"  he 
blurted  out,  "  my  friend  General  Warren  was  a  scholar 
and  a  gentleman,  but  your  author  has  made  him  a 
bully  and  blackguard."  One  might  spend  consider 
able  time  in  the  analysis  of  Hugh  Henry  Bracken- 
ridge's  drama  in  heroic  measure,  called  "  The  Battle 
of  Bunker's  Hill,"  or  the  same  author's  tragedy  on 
"  The  Death  of  General  Montgomery  at  the  Siege  of 
Quebec,"  and  brush  aside  the  weakness  of  scenes  as 
acted  drama,  but  extol  the  pure  spirit  of  patriotism  in 
its  heroic  and  imitative  verse.  As  the  feeling  ran,  so 
the  characterization  ran,  but  the  moral  object,  the 
heroic  intent,  the  contrast  of  humor  and  dignity  at 
least  point  to  art  expression.  Yet  here  even,  we  have 
a  war  drama  as  we  had  a  war  poetry  and  a  war  ora 
tory.  In  a  way,  one  finds  expressed  the  manners  of 


^        REVOLUTIONARY    PERIOD  159 

the  times,  as  in  Col.  Robert  Munford's  electioneering 
play,  "  The  Candidates,"  but  on  the  whole  the  litera 
ture  of  this  period  and  of  this  section  was  more  reflec 
tive  of  the  general  revolutionary  spirit  than  of  the 
South.  Yet,  notwithstanding,  from  the  Southern  soil 
and  civilization  was  evolved  a  political  leadership  far 
greater  than  the  literature  of  the  time. 


Ill 

ANTE-BELLUM  PERIOD 


TABLE  OP  AUTHORS 


1764-1822  ....    WILLIAM  PINCKNEY  ....     Maryland 

1765-1825  .      .      .    ROBERT   GOODLOE   HARPER    .     .     .     Virginia 

1775-1825  ....    WILLIAM   MUNFORD   ....     Virginia 

1775-1861  ....      GEORGE    TUCKER      ....     Virginia 

1776-1825  ....    NINIAN    PINKNEY    ....     Maryland 

1777-1852  ....      HENRY     CLAY      ....     Kentucky 

1778-1809 JOHN  SHAW Maryland 

1779-1843  .     .     .     WASHINGTON    ALLSTON     .     South   Carolina 

1780-1843  .     .     .      FRANCIS     SCOTT    KEY      .      .      .     Maryland 

1780-1851  ....  JOHN  J.  AUDUBON   ....     Louisiana 

1780-1865  ....     GEORGE  M.   TROUP     ....     Georgia 

1782-1850  .     .     .     JOHN    C.    CAWtetH*-   .     .     South  Carolina 

1782-1858  .     .      .    THOMAS  HART  BENTON     .     North  Carolina 

1784-1851  .     .     NATHANIEL   BEVERLEY  TUCKER     .     .     Virginia 

1784-1857  ....   WILLIAM  MAXWELL  ....     Virginia 

1786-1836  ....     DAVID  CROCKETT     ....     Tennessee 

1787-1825  ....     RICHARD  DABNEY     ....     Virginia 

1788-1863  .      .     .     WILLIAM    J.    GRAY  SON     .     South   Carolina 

1789-1847  .     .      .     RICHARD   HENRY    WILDE     .      .      .     Georgia 

1789-1863  .      .     .       JAMES  Louis  PETIQRU       .     South  Carolina 

1790-1870  .      .     .    AUGUSTUS   B.   LONGSTREET   .     .      .     Georgia 

1791-1839  .      .      .     ROBERT     Y.     HAYNE     .      .     South   Carolina 

1793-1863 SAM    HOUSTON Texas 

1794-1860  .      .      .     WILLIAM    C.    PRESTON     .     South     Carolina 

1795-1870  .     .     JOHN     PENDLETON     KENNEDY     .      .     Maryland 

1797-1843  .      .      .    HUGH    SWIXTON  LEG  ARE     .     South  Carolina 

1798-1859  .      .     .      MIRABEAU     B.     LAMAR      .      .      .     Georgia 

1798-1866  .      .      .   FRANCIS  LISTFR  HAWKS     .     North  Carolina 

1802-1828  .      .      .   EDWARD  COATE  PINKNEY  .      .     .     Maryland 

1802-1870  .      .      .      GEORGE    D.    PRENTICE      .     .     .     Kentucky 

1805-1895  .     .     .   CHARLES  E.  A.  GAYARRE  .      .      .     Louisiana 

1806-1870  .     .     WILLIAM   GILMORE^SUHH*     .     South  Carolina 

1806-1872  .     .     .      WILLIAM     CARRUTHERS      .      .     .     Virginia 

1806-1873  .     .     .      MATTHEW    F.    MAURY      .     .      .     Virginia 

1809-1849  ....     EDGAR  ALLAN  POE    ....     Virginia 

1809-1891  ....      ALBERT     PIKE      ....     Arkansas 

1810-1870  .     .     .     MME.  OCTAVIA  LE  VERT     .     .     .     Alabama 

1811-1864  .      .       .      JOSEPH    G.    BALDWIN      .      .     .     Alabama 

1812-1882  .     .      WILLIAM  TAPPAN  THOMPSON      .     .     Georgia 

1814-1865  .      .     .      ALEXANDER    B.    MEEK      .      .     .     Alabama 

1814-1868  .     .       .      GEORGE   W.    HARRIS      .       .     .     Tennessee 

1815-1863  .      .     .     JOHNSON  JONES  HOOPER     .     .      .     Alabama 

1816-1850  .      .      .    PHILIP  PENDLETON  COOKE  .      .     .     Virginia 

1816-1894  .     .     .     SEVERN  TEACKLE  WALLIS  .      .     .     Maryland 

1819-1852  ....     AMELIA    WELBY     ....     Maryland 

1820-1898  .     .     .      HENRY    ROOT    JACKSON      .     .     .     Georgia 

1822-1898  .      .        WILLIAM  HENRY  XRE&COTT  .     South  Carolina 

1859  •      •      •     JAMES     M.     I*E<>AKE       •     South   Carolina 

1823-1862  .     .       .      THOMAS    R.    R.    Cora      .       .      .     Georgia 

1823-1903  ....   CHARLES  H.  SMITH   ....     Georgia 

1825-1893  .     .     .     .     L.  Q.  C.  LAMAR       .     .     .     Mississippi 


CHAPTER    VII 
SOCIAL  FORCES 

THE  GENTLEMAN  OF  THE  BLACK  STOCK  AND  His 
CULTURE;  His  POLITICS;  THE  MENACE  OF  SLAV 
ERY;  THE  RISE  OF  STATES;  THE  ARISTOCRACY  AND 
THE  "  POOR  WHITES  " ;  THE  ERA  OF  AGRICULTURE. 


THE  history  of  the  South  is  easily  divisible  into 
periods  dominated  by  particular  mental  attitudes  to 
ward  national  questions.  It  was  almost  inevitable  that, 
having  adopted  a  constitution,  sections  differing  so 
widely  in  economic  practice  and  in  social  tradition 
should  be  suspicious  of  the  unequal  favors  of  a  Union, 
whose  sympathies  as  a  young  nation  were  more 
quickly  concerned  with  development  than  with  per 
petuation. 

At  the  outset  of  the  national  period,  the  South  was 
shackled  with  an  institution  and  with  a  product,  both 
of  which  required  an  extension  of  territory,  and  both 
of  which  assisted  in  the  migration  which  depleted 
Virginia,  and  opened  up  the  region  of  the  Lower 
South.  One  must  know  wherein  the  difference  lay, 
distinguishing  the  Upper  from  the  Lower  South,  and 
why  it  was  necessary  for  the  latter  to  procure  and  to 
maintain  at  all  hazards  ascendency  in  the  legislative 
body  at  Washington. 

The  migration  of  which  we  speak  resulted  in  the 
beginning  of  that  spirit  which  now  comprises  such  a 
hopeful  aspect  in  the  present  South.  The  trend  of 
democratization  is  to  be  traced  toward  the  southwest; 

163 


164    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

there  arose  upon  the  plantations  of  the  cotton  belt  a 
compact  upper  class,  which  did  not  possess  the  tide 
water  prejudice  against  allowing  other  than  the 
"  first  families  "  to  participate  in  the  affairs  of  state. 
But  this  shifting  of  attitude  in  the  Lower  South  only 
made  room  for  another  compact  body  of  a  different 
order — a  dominant  slave-owning  minority  which  com 
pletely  overshadowed  and  overruled  the  non-slave- 
holding  population. 

Slavery  and  agriculture,  likewise,  in  their  demand 
for  more  territory,  necessitated  negotiation  and  con 
flict  with  the  French  and  the  Spanish  and  the  Indians. 
There  was  also  the  local  economic  situation  regard 
ing  the  cultivation  of  cotton  and  its  increase  through 
slave  labor,  which  involved  national  diplomacy  and 
political  calculation. 

The  Federal  party,  so  it  is  said,  passed  away  because 
it  was  unable  to  adapt  itself  to  new  conditions;  its 
purpose  was  to  establish  a  constitution,  and  it  did 
what  it  set  out  to  do.  The  group  of  Southerners  who 
were  instrumental  in  framing  national  law,  as  well  as 
the  la\vs  of  their  native  states,  closed  an  era  which 
has  here  been  designated  as  the  Revolutionary  Period, 
because  the  national  idea  was  born  in  revolution. 
Immediately,  these  same  men  entertained  new  ideas 
of  construing  what  had  been  constructed ;  it  is  there 
fore  an  almost  impossible  operation  to  draw  definite 
lines  separating  the  Southern  Revolutionary  author 
from  the  author  of  the  national  period.  One  can  but 
view  the  periods  in  terms  of  the  dominant  problems 
with  which  the  people  were  concerned.  Until  the  out 
break  of  the  Civil  War,  the  Southern  mind  passed 
from  strict  construction  to  a  construction  based  en 
tirely  upon  protection  of  an  institution  which,  part  of 
the  web  and  woof  of  the  social  fabric,  was  at  the  same 
time  its  curse,  its  protection,  and  its  economic  creed. 
Slavery  and  cotton  were  at  the  bottom  of  tariff  dis- 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  165 

quietude;  they  accentuated  the  unequal  legislation 
which  brought  about  the  defiant  South  Carolina  policy 
of  Nullification;  and  the  irritation  of  attacks  from 
the  outside  awakened  a  further  view  of  constitutional 
construction  leading  to  states'  rights,  and  to  the 
eventual  arguments  in  favor  of  secession.  So  closely 
do  slavery  and  cotton  bind  together  every  mental  atti 
tude  of  the  Southern  people  from  1800  until  1854, 
that  it  is  well  to  embrace  the  elements  in  one  ante 
bellum  consideration.  Freedom  of  thought  was  sim 
ply  the  right  to  acknowledge  the  necessity  of  thinking 
for  the  defense  of  slavery.  Sectional  feeling  only  ac 
centuated  sectional  peculiarities,  and  these  in  turn  col 
ored  the  literature  of  all  genres.  The  pulpit  was  in 
volved,  the  school,  the  press — all  culture  reaped  the 
narrowing  effects  of  slavery  and  cotton.  Social  forces, 
affecting  the  mind  and  character  of  the  Southern  peo 
ple,  measure  the  philosophic,  intensive  view  of  life  as 
reflected  in  the  written  record. 

The  geographical  distribution  of  the  Southern  peo 
ple  is  fairly  well  marked  in  the  dialect  peculiarities 
which  distinguish  states  and  even  sections  of  states; 
one  might  analyze  the  distinctive  pronunciations  of 
regions,  in  the  manner  of  Dr.  Primer,  and  be  able 
thus  to  determine  the  constituent  parts,  the  character 
istic  make-up,  of  the  streams  of  emigrants  in  their 
pioneer  trail  across  the  Appalachian,  down  the  Mis 
sissippi  Valley  from  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  and 
into  Texas.  Adopting  a  literary  method,  based  on  an 
acquaintance  with  historical  fact,  one  might  follow 
Mr.  Brown's  intensive  and  at  the  same  time  human 
policy  of  taking  types  of  men  as  indicating  the  value 
of  stock  and  the  qualities  of  inheritance.  He  speaks 
of  "men  of  the  physical  mold"  of  Andrew  Jackson 
and  John  C.  Calhoun — the  Scotch-Irish  contribution 
to  American  history;  of  Western  energy  and  idea, 
plus  Southern  charm,  as  seen  in  Clay.  Such  state- 


166    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

ments,  while  easily  made,  in  this  case  represent  a  cer 
tain  close-hand  knowledge  of  the  South  from  within 
the  civilization,  which,  until  recent  years,  has  been  a 
rare  phenomenon  among  the  critics  of  the  South. 

If  one  should  take  state  by  state  and  study  the 
dominant  peculiarities  of  speech  and  temperament,  his 
torical  reasons  could  be  furnished  for  every  social, 
political,  and  economic  point  of  view  actuating  the 
pioneer  in  his  westward  and  south  westward  march 
from  Virginia  after  the  Revolution.  Virginia  and 
South  Carolina,  ranged  on  the  side  of  aristocracy,  are 
balanced  by  North  Carolina  and  Georgia,  poorer  and 
more  democratic.  The  aristocratic  English  tradition, 
pushing  through  the  mountains  into  Alabama,  reached 
the  Gulf,  and,  as  Professor  Trent  has  pointed  out, 
planted  an  aristocracy  in  Mobile  and  New  Orleans — 
he  might  have  added  as  regards  the  latter,  a  distinct 
life  within  the  Southern  life,  for  the  French  and 
Spanish  influences  are  still  evident,  and  are  not  wholly 
absorbed. 

The  time  had  now  come  when  Virginia,  having  con 
tributed  to  the  Lower  South,  was  to  turn  toward  that 
section  as  the  chief  market  for  its  slave  labor.  Over 
the  mountains,  pioneers  carried  their  English  traits 
and  a  certain  prejudice  toward  slavery  which  found 
such  pronounced  utterance  in  1832,  when  the  Virginia 
legislature  debated  so  energetically  the  way  to  rid 
the  state  of  its  curse.  Virginia  might  have  withstood 
its  weakness  through  constant  drain  had  it  responded 
to  the  economic  creed.  Therein  lay  the  policy 
of  South  Carolina,  more  dogmatically  aristocratic, 
and  more  unlikely  to  accept  the  democracy  which  in 
creased  with  the  increase  in  popularity  of  Jackson  after 
the  War  of  1812  and  the  Seminole  conflicts,  the  lat 
ter  of  which  freed  the  Florida  territory  from  the 
grip  of  the  Spaniard.  But  South  Carolina,  overrun 
by  the  negro,  rose  upon  the  tide  of  feeling  which 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  167 

looked  toward  slave  labor  to  supply  cotton  for  the 
newly  invented  gin,  which,  in  1793,  emanated  from 
the  mind  of  Eli  Whitney,  a  Yankee,  who  was  visiting 
Savannah. 

Thus,  another  stream  from  Georgia,  westward 
through  the  black  belt,  is  to  be  noted,  as  well  as  one 
from  North  Carolina,  westward  into  Tennessee.  As 
slavery  modified  character,  so  we  shall  find  the  moun 
tains  giving  a  certain  touch  of  democracy,  akin  to  law 
lessness,  but  with  a  certain  unwritten  code  of  justice. 
Yet,  as  seen  in  the  stories  of  Charles  Egbert  Crad- 
dock  and  John  Fox,  the  unfailing  pride — whether 
Scotch-Irish  or  not — which  wells  up  in  the  Cum 
berland  Valley,  is  a  fact,  however  anomalous  it 
may  be.  The  truth  is  that  Southern  democracy  in 
principle,  rather  than  in  political  or  party  differences, 
became  a  slave  party  just  as  soon  as  slavery  became 
the  large  political  issue. 

Ingle  writes:  "What  the  South  was  to  be  terri 
torially  had  been  determined  in  1836."  This  state 
ment  involves  much  historical  activity,  embracing  the 
opening  of  the  Louisiana  territory  and  Florida,  be 
sides  indicating  the  necessity  of  disentangling  the 
Southwest  from  foreign  control.  But  more  than  that, 
by  1836,  the  sectional  differences  had  also  become  fully 
determined.  The  opening  of  the  Mississippi  River, 
the  questions  of  tariff  and  internal  improvement,  the 
consideration  of  a  congressional  balance  which  was 
necessary,  inasmuch  as  the  South  was  forced  to  as 
sume  the  defensive — these  sectional  interests  enlisted 
the  political  talent  as  well  as  colored  the  literary  senti 
ment. 

For  the  first  time  in  the  literature  of  the  South, 
there  appears  a  conscious  recognition  of  sectional  pecu 
liarities,  the  use  of  local  character,  of  local  experience, 
and  of  pride  in  local  endeavor.  While  the  critical  acu 
men  of  Wirt's  "  Letters  of  the  British  Spy  "  exceeds 


i68    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

that  of  Alexander  B.  Meek's  "  Romantic  Passages  in 
Southwestern  History,"  it  nevertheless  marks  a  cer 
tain  intellectual  habit  of  Southern  writers  which  might 
have  been  rare  had  it  not  become  pledged  in  directions 
requiring  laudation  and  flowery  eloquence,  rather  than 
discriminating  judgment.  In  this  respect,  Wirt  was 
nearer  the  Revolution — more  national  than  ante-bel 
lum,  yet  withal  possessed  of  poetic  feeling,  and  full  of 
sentiment,  rather  than  sentimental. 

The  local  sense  was  born  directly  of  the  soil,  perhaps 
striking  because  of  the  very  marked  outward  idiosyn 
crasies  which  did  not  so  utterly  involve  the  soul  as 
did  the  New  England  conscience.  The  Southern  mind 
assumed  almost  a  unified  attitude  toward  Southern 
qualities,  a  formal  code  of  expression  in  dealing  with 
moral  questions.  Because  of  the  narrow  richness  of 
his  life,  the  writer  within  the  South  became  slave  of 
his  excellent  bequeathment.  Barring  a  few  examples, 
the  most  noteworthy  being  Simms,  authorship  was  an 
accomplishment  rather  than  a  profession ;  it  was  sec 
ondary  to  the  larger  field  of  politics.  That  is  why  one 
finds  long  discursive  passages  in  the  novels  of  the 
early  period — romances  now  grouped  in  a  genre 
spoken  of  as  old-fashioned;  there  was  no  balance  in 
the  use  of  life  and  romance;  it  had  either  to  be  one 
or  the  other.  The  romantic  formula  exacted  a  rigid 
adherence  to  prescribed  rules  or  conventions  of  man 
hood  and  womanhood,  which  were  interpreted  as  in 
violable  symbols  of  life. 

Hence  it  is  that  characterization  became  statuesque, 
action  painfully  melodramatic,  and  social  consider 
ation  oratorical.  Let  the  writer  touch  upon  a  point  in 
Southern  life,  and  he  was  willing  to  halt  his  story  so 
as  to  debate  the  question  and  settle  it  at  once  accord 
ing  to  his  personal  point  of  view.  There  was  no 
justice  done  to  his  characters ;  they  must  obey  his  code 
of  honor,  they  must  hold  his  convictions.  Otherwise, 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  169 

they  must  act  in  the  manner  of  Scott's  heroes  and  ful 
fill  the  destinies  of  Hannah  More's  heroines. 

It  is  very  true  that  the  course  of  events  forced  the 
Southern  writer  into  a  position  of  actually  deceiving 
himself.  He  loved  his  life ;  the  very  paternalism  of  the 
fields  became  the  part  of  him  which  was  bequeathed  to 
the  next  generation.  But  his  sensitiveness  was  con 
fession  of  a  weakness  in  that  life  which  he  dared  not 
whisper  to  himself,  much  less  utter  in  his  literature; 
upon  his  confidence  rested  the  equilibrium  of  his  civil 
ization.  So  he  argued,  even  though  large  numbers 
of  his  associates,  in  legislature,  in  De  Bow,  and  else 
where,  expressed  disbelief  in  the  advantages  of 
slavery. 

The  culture  of  the  South  in  this  period  is  more  than 
ever  dependent  upon  social  forces  in  the  life.  Politi 
cal  unrest  was  everywhere  further  aggravated  by  an 
observational  criticism,  passed  upon  the  civilization 
from  without  by  those  avowedly  inimical  to  the  eco 
nomic  system.  In  Governor  Hammond's  pro-slavery 
argument,  he  refers  to  Miss  Martineau's  Boccaccio 
pen;  his  attitude  was  that  the  Southerners  would  not 
dare  broach  certain  subjects — a  statement  which 
marks  a  distinct  dissociation  of  morality  from  social 
condition.  Southern  literature  sounds  two  persistent 
notes  during  this  time — political  aggressiveness  and 
sectional  pride. 

One  has,  moreover,  to  examine  into  another  liter 
ature  of  bulky  proportion,  but  none  the  less  essential 
to  an  understanding  of  the  South.  In  a  criticism  of 
Mrs.  Stowe's  Uncle  Torn,  Mr.  Allen  truly  states  that 
the  South  did  not  object  to  the  character  per  se,  but 
to  "the  category  of  events"  that  befell  the  character. 
It  is  exactly  in  this  respect  that  the  English  and  North 
ern  travelers  who  went  through  the  South  were  unfair 
to  the  total  value  of  that  life;  they  possessed  neither 
time  nor  desire  to  estimate  the  people  in  terms  of 


170    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

other  than  the  worse  conditions  which  came  under 
their  observation. 

The  Southern  critic  has  justly  protested  against  an 
overmarked  confidence  in  details  gathered  by  the 
stranger,  and  shorn  of  all  sympathetic  insight  into 
any  of  the  rich  results  emanating  from  such  a  civiliza 
tion.  Rhodes,  the  historian,  starting  out  in  the  cus 
tomary  fault-commenting  vein,  was  forced,  through 
the  exceptional  fairness  of  his  historical  sense,  to  off 
set  arraignment  with  justification.  The  early  critic 
of  slavery  was  extravagant,  and  so  was  the  defender. 
They  were  both  culpable  in  the  same  way,  though  not 
as  rabid  as  the  abolitionist  and  fire-eater,  whom  Mr. 
Brown  distinguished,  one  from  the  other,  in  the  terse 
statement  that  the  former  would  have  sacrificed  the 
Union  to  free  the  slave,  while  the  latter  would  have 
sacrificed  the  Union  rather  than  see  the  slave  free. 
The  Northerner  approached  the  problem  abstractly; 
the  Southerner  looked  upon  the  immediate  fact.  The 
masterfulness  of  the  white  was  essential  if  the  section 
was  to  advance  with  other  sections.  South  Carolina, 
then  as  now,  saw  the  ascendent  race  in  the  minority 
as  far  as  numbers  were  concerned. 

And  so  we  may  apply  Mr.  Allen's  statement  to  more 
than  Mrs.  Stowe's  book — to  Fannie  Kemble's  "  Jour 
nal  of  a  Residence  on  a  Georgian  Plantation  in  1838- 
1839,"  agreeable  with  a  certain  languid  tone  and  feel 
ing  response  to  the  beauty  of  scene ;  to  Frederick  Law 
Olmsted's  rambling  travels;  and  to  J.  Elliot  Cairnes' 
consideration  of  "The  Slave  Power,"  and  the  laws 
governing  it.  The  student  cannot  disregard  these 
books;  they  are  rich  with  unsystcmatized  material,  or 
rather  with  detail  arranged  according  to  a  one-sided 
argument.  Olmsted's  narratives,  leisurely  gathered, 
and  agreeably  written  in  journalistic  fashion,  are  data 
placed  for  the  purpose  of  conviction;  they  never  as 
sume  the  impersonal  because,  as  a  scientific  agricul- 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  171 

turist,  as  an  enemy  to  slave  labor,  he  was  continually 
challenging.  One  does  not  have  to  go  far  in  the 
numberless  books  to  realize  that  the  aristocratic  life, 
overworked  in  romance  and  biography,  was  not  of 
as  much  importance  to  Olmsted,  as  the  poorer  classes 
whom  Helper  appealed  to  when  he  wrote  his  "  Im 
pending  Crisis." 

Professor  Trent's  view  is  thoroughly  sound  when 
he  suggests  that  Olmsted  is  valuable  to-day  in  meas 
uring  the  progress  of  the  New  South,  for  the  very 
reason  that  the  plain  man  is  coming  to  mean  some 
thing  more  to  the  South  in  its  social,  political,  and 
economic  awakening.  The  plain  man  is  likewise  a 
part  of  Southern  literature. 

We  are  not  expected  to  argue  again  the  case  of  slav 
ery;  that  it  has  ceased  is  an  incontrovertible  fact  for 
which  the  South  is  thankful ;  we  must  approach  the 
records  to  extract  therefrom  the  influence  such  an  in 
stitution,  such  a  life,  had  upon  the  mental  activity  of 
the  people.  Olmsted  did  not  carry  with  him  to  the 
South  a  broad  knowledge  of  the  South;  he  was  recep 
tive  and  paid  small  heed  to  the  activity  within  the 
South,  along  the  lines  of  systematized  agriculture,  so 
earnestly  exerted  by  Lieutenant  Maury,  so  zealously 
suggested  in  the  face  of  his  support  of  slavery  by  De 
Bow,  so  pledged  to  pioneer  experiment  by  Ruffin. 

The  student  is  just  beginning  to  understand  the 
part  played  by  the  poor  white  in  the  ante-bellum 
South ;  that  he  was  overshadowed  is  largely  due  to 
the  importance  of  the  landed  gentry  in  the  whole  eco 
nomic  machinery  which  slavery  raised  and  strength 
ened.  The  mental  attitude  of  the  Gentleman  of  the 
Black  Stock,  his  culture,  his  tradition,  his  rights,  were 
not  challenged  because  cotton  was  king.  The  irrita 
tion,  the  vehement  logic  that  carried  by  force  of  its 
rhetoric,  the  old-world  dignity,  the  warm  protect 
ing  condescension  of  his  manner,  stamped  the  type, 


THE   LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

molded  by  forces  which  he  realized  and  was  strug 
gling-  to  conserve.  But  he  felt  the  inevitable  restless 
ness  which  results  from  fear  of  going  forward  lest 
the  old  charm  be  sacrificed.  He  would  incommode 
himself  rather  than  relinquish  a  superfluous  manner 
which  was  useless,  and  which  the  laws  of  progress 
claimed  to  be  waste  of  time  and  energy.  It  was  thus 
that  his  thought  assumed  an  aspect  as  formal  as  his 
person;  they  were  both  forceful,  magnetic,  pictur 
esque,  but  of  the  old  order,  and  pledged  to  the  old 
order. 

While  the  chief  charm  of  the  Old  Gentleman  of 
the  Black  Stock  rests  in  his  romantic  possibilities,  well- 
nigh  overworked  in  a  conventional  sentiment  by  Mr. 
Page  in  his  novel  bearing  that  name,  he  was  at  the 
same  time  an  economic  factor,  inasmuch  as  upon  him 
fell  the  responsibilities  and  the  results  of  the  agricul 
tural  life.  Indeed,  in  his  use  of  the  term  "  Southern 
People,"  as  applied  to  the  population  before  the  war, 
Mr.  Page  draws  this  distinction;  for  he  claims  that  a 
Southern  literature  could  have  come  from  no  other 
class  than  that  which  supported  the  slave-holding  in 
terests  ;  nothing  was  to  be  expected  of  the  poor  white, 
much  less  of  the  negro. 

The  old-time  courtesy  was  born  of  the  gentry  habits 
of  home  life ;  the  paternal  position  the  "  Old  Gentle 
man  "  was  placed  in  by  the  presence  of  the  slave,  de 
veloped  his  power  of  self-control,  and  accentuated  a 
decisiveness  which  was  hardly  amenable  to  the  rea 
soning  of  others,  and  which,  held  patiently  in  leash, 
might  be  interpreted  as  condescension.  He  advanced 
with  his  head  turned  longingly  to  the  past.  Every 
where,  life  exhibits  that  strong  love  for  what  has  been, 
and  in  the  South  this  was  longest  in  ruling  the  mind, 
because  a  conservative  society,  especially  a  homogene 
ous  group  which  has  not  been  molded  from  widely 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  173 

divergent  stock,  did  not  recognize  or  give  heed  to 
progress  apart  from  its  sectional  demands.  The  phi 
losophic  views  of  the  statesmen  who  built  the  nation 
were  no  longer  possible. 

The  Gentleman  of  the  Black  Stock  was  generally  a 
lawyer;  if  his  prominence  won  him  large  political 
honors,  he  was  compared  with  his  predecessors  at 
the  bar, — Randolph,  Marshall,  even  Henry.  He  was 
as  consumed  with  the  fire  of  legal  ingenuity  and  en 
ergy,  as  the  modern  business  man  is  with  Wall  Street. 
And  to  his  credit  it  must  be  said  that  in  his  reach  for 
high  posts,  his  civic  sense  was  stronger  than  his  realiza 
tion  of  personal  benefits.  His  rectitude,  his  high  seri 
ousness  whenever  his  mind  was  engaged  in  affairs  of 
moment,  are  indication  of  what  Southern  literature 
might  have  been,  had  it  not  been  overruled  by  a  pro 
fession  which  genius  seemed  particularly  to  have 
favored. 

In  his  literature,  the  Gentleman  of  the  Black  Stock 
reveled  leisjurely;  his  tastes  were  inherited  with  the 
library  of  previous  generations.  Early  in  life,  he  lisped 
the  letters  from  his  Plutarch,  and  toward  the  close 
of  his  life  he  might  have  been  persuaded  to  open 
Wordsworth,  perhaps  because  of  the  poet's  associative 
faculty  and  religious  conservatism. 

Now,  what  was  his  mental  attitude  toward  the 
humanities?  He  believed  in  leisure  for  the  exercise 
of  thought,  and  he  was  firm  in  the  conviction  that 
through  slavery,  which  in  addition  to  its  being  "  natu 
rally,  morally  and  politically  right  and  beneficial,"  like 
wise  "  saved  the  planter  from  the  necessity  of  labor," 
the  section  would  be  led  to  opulence,  and  the  arts  and 
sciences  would  naturally  follow.  He  adopted  a  pro 
nounced  classic  cultivation  of  letters;  he  spoke  of  his 
tory  as  the  preserving  page;  he  applied  to  the  pen  of 
Livy  a  picturesque  term,  "  luminous/'  which  critically 


I74    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

might  mean  anything,  but  which  to  him  meant  aphor 
istic  wisdom  inherited  from  Solon.  In  his  imagina 
tion  he  could  not  conceive  of  the  plastic  nature  of 
literature;  he  could  not  accept  the  evanescent  value  of 
news.  The  times  should  be  improved  in  accordance 
with  ancient  example;  a  classical  foundation  was  es 
sential  because  of  the  wisdom  it  reflected;  the  future 
was  to  be  regulated  by  the  past;  reestablishment  was 
more  to  be  sought  after  than  innovation. 

In  an  address  before  the  Erosophic  Society  of  the 
University  of  Alabama,  delivered  as  early  as  Decem 
ber  7,  1839,  Meek,  in  his  plea  for  intellectual  activity, 
gave  to  the  students  this  sophistry :  "  In  proportion 
as  individuals  of  different  qualities  enter  into  the  com 
position  of  society, — so  it  becomes,  in  its  general  tone, 
less  pure  and  elevated."  And  yet,  though  every 
speaker  in  the  South  lauded  the  "  peculiar  institution/' 
they  were  beginning  to  see  that  the  agricultural  char 
acter  of  their  lives  was  not  entirely  idyllic  for  the 
fostering  of  the  fine  arts,  despite  the  fact  that  they 
pointed  to  ancient  examples  of  primal  originality, 
springing  from  soil  opulent  under  slave  rule.  To  the 
Gentleman  of  the  Black  Stock  there  was  only  one  large 
factor  preventing  the  full  enjoyment  of  national  ad 
vancement,  and  that  was  governmental  discrimination 
in  favor  of  a  section  not  agricultural.  He  was  only 
partially  right. 

Meek  held  such  opinions,  yet  he  also  placed  himself 
in  an  anomalous  position  when  he  claimed  for  the 
"  humble  and  industrious "  dotting  the  "  neighbor 
hood  roads,"  the  camp  meetings  and  county  court, 
some  share  in  the  awakening  lie  invoked  from  the 
students  of  Alabama.  The  Southerner  at  such  mo 
ments  of  appeal  fell  into  vacuous  expressions  which 
gilded  the  lily  but  weakened  the  force  of  his  argu 
ment,  and  often  ignored  the  statement  of  ways  and 
means  by  which  the  accomplishment  might  be  reached. 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  175 

ii 

In  defining1  the  term  romance,  the  Southern  writer 
confounded  two  traits  of  the  material  used  by  him; 
recognizing  the  fact  that  the  incidents,  the  actions, 
the  emotions  employed  were  of  a  peculiar  character, 
he  also  was  aware  that  their  veracity  was  always 
doubted.  He  possessed  a  certain  desire  to  establish 
the  realistic  existence  of  his  data,  but  he  sacrificed  any 
claim  to  truth  that  romance  might  have,  by  the  illogical, 
violent  ordering-  of  his  story,  and  by  the  emotional 
verboseness  of  his  style.  His  analytical  insight  was 
not  as  personal  as  the  power  he  displayed  of  self- 
expression. 

The  permanence  of  culture  was  his  much-coveted 
ideal,  but  it  was  a  culture  based  on  class  distinction 
and  on  social  opportunity,  through  which  flowed  no 
strength  of  new  blood.  Utilitarian  practice  was 
thought  to  tarnish  his  higher  accomplishments,  nor 
could  he  express  his  ideas  tersely,  inasmuch  as  his 
reading  public  had  been  trained  in  a  school  of  rounded 
sentences  and  effulgent  adjectives.  He  was  not  nec 
essarily  self-deceived ;  it  was  due  to  his  traditions  that 
his  speech  became  over-exaggerated,  a  quixotic  exal 
tation  of  common  things.  This  may  have  added 
charm  to  the  manners  of  the  Gentleman  of  the  Black 
Stock,  but  it  grew  wearisome  in  his  literature.  His 
thought  was  often  direct,  his  expression  mostly  oblique 
and  long-winded. 

The  attendant  circumstances  of  slavery  fostered 
Southern  punctiliousness  of  conversation.  Meek 
claims  for  the  "  Southron"  "a  spirit  of  superiority"; 
his  speech  was  necessarily  a  measure  of  this  position; 
his  "  self-esteem  "  gave  unshakable  confidence  to  his 
assertion ;  his  "  aristocratic  feeling "  at  once  limited 
his  view ;  his  "  chivalry  of  character  "  accentuated  his 
honesty  of  purpose,  more  simple  than  calculating. 


176    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

Because  of  the  unpractical  and  decorative  accom 
plishment  of  literature,  Southerners  placed  small  value 
upon  it  as  a  profession;  the  reason  probably  was  to 
be  found  in  the  facts  that  there  were  no  large  centers, 
no  literary  circles  outside  of  Simms,  and  no  publishing 
impetus  save  in  the  North.  But  concentration,  ac 
cording  to  the  critics  of  the  day,  would  not  have  bet 
tered  the  situation  in  the  South;  Irving  and  Cooper 
and  those  who  came  after  were  as  strong  in  their 
cry  against  the  domination  of  English  books,  to  the 
detriment  of  American  literature  generally,  as  later 
the  South  became,  in  its  opposition  to  Northern 
monopoly,  especially  in  the  case  of  schoolbooks. 

It  was  this  justified  unrest  as  to  the  state  of  Amer 
ican  letters,  which  prompted  both  Meek  and  Simms  to 
write  on  the  subject ;  but  there  was,  in  addition,  that 
ever-present  historical  sense  in  the  Southerner,  which 
developed  in  him  the  desire  to  know  his  country  and 
to  make  use  of  its  romance  and  luxuriance.  Simms 
believed  in  a  compact  minority ;  he  even  went  further 
than  Meek  in  his  dislike  of  shifting  population;  he 
considered  it  a  drawback  to  the  development  of  any 
national  characteristics  to  wander,  to  become  cos 
mopolitan,  to  mix  with  foreign  stock;  he  saw  the 
result  to  be  a  "moral  loss"  in  which  "standards  of 
judgment  fluctuate,  sensibilities  become  blunted,  prin 
ciples  impaired,  with  increasing  insecurity  at  each 
additional  move/*  This  effort  to  stem  what  was  con 
sidered  a  destructive  tide  of  denationalization  was 
prompted  by  the  same  desire  which  was  evident 
on  the  part  of  manufacturers  to  build  up  home  indus 
try.  English  thought  versus  English  woolens! 

The  Gentleman  of  the  Black  Stock  had  a  vague  con 
ception  as  to  nationalism  in  literature;  he  understood 
that  racial  habits  grew  out  of  racial  life;  that  no  one 
nation  could  live  upon  the  laws  of  another  without 
vital,  inherent  connection  between  law  and  the  people 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  177 

to  be  governed;  that  the  process  must  be  inward  ne 
cessity  acted  upon  by  outward  condition;  that  a 
nation's  art  cannot  be  superimposed  from  without 
itself.  But  yet,  his  expansive  attitude  toward  a 
national  literature  gradually  narrowed,  assuming  a 
local  aspect,  because  of  the  conservative  interpretation 
of  his  idea  that  "as  we  adapt  our  warfare  to  the 
peculiarities  of  the  country,  and  our  industry  to  our 
climate  ...  so  the  operations  of  the  national 
mind  must  be  suited  to  our  characteristics."  The 
much-flaunted  and  oft-repeated  expression,  "  the  genius 
of  our  people,"  was  applied  particularly  to  a  section. 
The  Southern  historian  mostly  wrote  of  Southern 
Revolutionary  generals,  of  Southern  colonization ;  even 
in  his  treatment  of  the  Indians,  he  was  not  as  success 
ful  in  creating  the  typal  traits  as  he  was  in  noting  the 
tribal  peculiarities.  In  the  latter  respect,  we  may  draw 
one  of  the  distinctions  between  Cooper  and  Simms. 

The  modern  conception  of  history  did  not  develop 
until  there  was  a  severance  of  romance  from  record. 
It  is  strange  to  take  the  statistics  of  De  Bow  and 
measure  them  in  comparison  with  the  sentiment  of 
expression  accompanying  them.  Having  defined  to 
his  own  satisfaction  the  distinctive  functions  of  the 
historian  and  the  romancer,  Simms  claimed  for  both 
artistic  positions,  different  in  degree  rather  than  in 
kind — a  philosophic  variance  that  rests  upon  the  sub 
tle  distinction  between  grandeur  and  delicacy.  But 
whether  the  one  or  the  other,  the  American  author 
needed  to  deal  with  American  soil.  This  catholic 
statement  coming  from  a  South  Carolinian  was  ac 
companied  by  Southern  claims  and  inclinations. 

But  the  voice  of  the  Lower  South  was  democratic 
despite  this,  especially  in  comparison  with  the  Upper 
South ;  even  in  its  intellectual  outlook  it  tried  to  be 
so.  One  instinctively  feels  this  if,  after  reading  the 
aristocratic  "  Partisan  Leader  "  of  Beverley  Tucker, 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

he  should  pick  up  Longstreet's  "  Georgia  Scenes  "  or 
Baldwin's  "Flush  Times  in  Alabama."  In  1844, 
when  Meek  again  reviewed  the  discussion  of  Ameri 
canism  in  literature,  he  had  learned  that  the  "  quiet 
bowers  "  and  the  "  turbulent  fields  "  had  to  have  some 
connection  if  the  literature  was  to  be  live.  If  the 
song  of  the  Georgian  poet  was  to  be  drawn  from  the 
red  hills  of  Georgia,  why  might  not  some  Caedmon 
of  the  fields  be  worthy  to  receive  the  inspiration?  The 
Southern  gentleman  had  only  a  vague  idea  of  de 
mocracy  in  literature ;  it  was  little  more  to  him  than  an 
ideal  goal  shut  out  by  social  discrimination  and  dis 
couragement.  But  there  was  hope  even  in  the  pres 
ence  of  a  desire  like  this ;  the  social  organism  did  not 
provide  sufficiently  for  free  schools,  and  kept  under 
an  arrested  mentality,  which  is  only  now  beginning  to 
stir,  but  which  was  once  a  menace  because  of  inanition. 

"  We  must  have  a  literature  congenial  to  our  institu 
tions,"  writes  Meek,  and  as  though  fearing  lest  na 
tional  encouragement  might  lead  to  national  encroach 
ment,  he  allowed  his  political  state  individualism  to 
demand  for  art,  sectional  encouragement  and  national 
protection.  Thus,  literature  becomes  a  tangible  com 
modity,  regulated,  encouraged,  influenced  by  patron 
age,  rather  than  reflecting,  as  Southern  oratory  always 
did,  the  state  of  mind  of  which  it  was  the  necessary 
expression.  He  might  point  with  pride  to  Bancroft 
offsetting  Livy,  to  Prescott  offsetting  Hume,  yet  he 
overlooked  questioning  methods  and  processes. 

But,  while  the  student  of  Southern  conditions  is 
forced  to  lay  stress  on  all  the  factors  which  tended 
to  retard  the  intellectual  and  practical  advancement  of 
the  South,  he  has  likewise  the  satisfaction  of  calling 
attention  to  those  voices  within  the  civilization,  and  a 
part  of  the  civilization,  which  had  the  courage  to  place 
an  unerring  emphasis  on  those  very  weaknesses  which 
were  most  detrimental  to  its  welfare.  Despite  the 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  179 

concerted  legislation  which  sought  to  preserve  slavery, 
there  was  equally  as  strong  a  cry  raised  for  its  aboli 
tion;  the  question  that  stared  the  Southerner  in  the 
face  was — how  was  this  to  be  accomplished?  For  it 
would  mean  free  labor  and  a  shifting  of  agricultural 
base,  and  it  would  mean  the  loosening  of  bonds  from 
a  large  shiftless,  ignorant  black  population  whose  only 
education — and  the  moral  control  which  comes  there 
from — had  been  slavery.  It  was  not  until  much  later, 
when  the  negro's  position  imposed  a  deep  obligation 
upon  the  white  man,  and  when  education,  escaping 
the  pronounced  denominational  cast  of  early  years, 
was  extended  in  popular  scope,  that  the  Southerner 
began  to  realize  that  the  ignorance  of  a  class  was  the 
one  great  menace  to  his  civilization.  The  best  thought 
of  the  South  to-day  has  profited  by  the  narrow  results 
of  the  past. 

The  other  fault  in  the  South  was  the  degradation 
of  labor,  a  general  attitude  directly  the  result  of  slavery 
— an  attitude  which  made  the  lowest  poor  white  draw 
back  and  sink  lower  because  of  his  refusal  to  com 
pete  with  or  to  work  with  the  black  man.  The  South 
erner  was  not  ignorant  of  the  evil  which  lay  in  this 
false  pride ;  he  was  continually,  in  legislative  halls  and 
in  print,  seeking  to  do  away  with  this  prejudice 
which  economically  represented  a  waste  and  prevented 
him  from  personally  superintending  his  crop.  But  the 
yeoman  pride  has  not  yet  been  overcome ;  it  is  a  relic 
which  education,  not  poverty  and  the  factory,  will 
finally  change. 

Between  labor  and  the  fine  arts  there  was  no  inter 
mediate  stage — no  effort  to  see  wherein  a  liberal  art 
might  affect  the  practical  advancement  of  the  South ; 
the  want  of  this  spirit  made  the  planter  conservative, 
even  to  the  extent  of  using  out-of-date  implements  in 
the  fields,  when  elsewhere  an  improved  patent  was  time- 
saving  and  also  more  thorough.  Hence,  during  this 


i8o    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

period,  the  Gentleman  of  the  Black  Stock,  a  devotee 
of  ancient  tongues,  regarded  askance  any  suggestion 
that  education  alone  might  not  be  intended  for  the 
cultivation  of  the  higher  faculties,  but  as  well  for  the 
strengthening  of  what  he  was  accustomed  to  term 
"  the  grosser  faculties  of  the  mind."  To  the  South 
erner,  not  yet  alive  to  the  value  of  the  sociologist's 
point  of  view,  manual  training,  other  than  that  afforded 
by  slavery,  was  hardly  worthy  of  wide  consideration. 
As  Meek  asserted,  "  There  might  be  a  nation  of  men 
highly  educated  upon  the  utilitarian  plan,  who  would 
all  be  villains."  When  one  realizes  what  this  posi 
tion  meant  in  the  Southern  make-up,  the  democratic 
spirit  assumes  insignificant  proportions.  And  while 
it  is  difficult  to  see  where,  in  such  mental  narrowness, 
there  was  any  hope  for  a  Whitman  of  the  future, 
the  Southern  literary  critic  has  the  privilege  of  com 
menting  upon  Lanier's  close  sympathy  with  the 
broader  life. 

The  Southern  mind  struggled  beneath  its  social  limi 
tation.  In  1824,  Professor  Thomas  Cooper,  recom 
mending  the  study  of  political  economy  to  the  stu 
dents  of  South  Carolina  University,  delivered  a  series 
of  lectures  on  the  subject,  based  on  Mrs.  Marcet's 
"  Conversations."  To  the  latter,  which  in  English 
literature  represented  an  interesting  break  from  the 
moral  sentimentality  begun  by  Rousseau,  Cooper 
added  a  clear-cut  understanding  of  fundamental  prin 
ciples  and  a  sound,  if  not  broad,  learning.  When 
his  "  Lectures  on  the  Elements  of  Political  Economy  " 
were  published  in  1831,  his  evident  desire  for  free  dis 
cussion,  his  generous  views  regarding  population — in 
fact,  all  economic  doctrines — were  measured  in  terms 
of  the  South  and  slavery.  Turning  to  Adam  Smith, 
he  emphasized  the  statement  that  it  was  sound  policy 
"  to  leave  individuals  to  pursue  their  own  interests  in 
their  own  way," — a  statement  which  had  particular 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  181 

appeal  for  him  because  the  tariff  legislation  was  fore 
most  in  his  mind.  He  was  narrow  in  spite  of  his 
broadness,  because  he  was  a  Southerner !  By  the  next 
year,  his  professional  dignity  was  cast  aside  in  the 
cause  of  Nullification.  From  Columbia,  S.  C.,  in  1832, 
there  emanated  anonymously  a  curious  fiction  entitled 
"  The  Memoirs  of  a  Nullifier,"  of  which  he  was  the 
author.  Literarily,  it  is  of  small  value;  there  is  an 
attempt  at  cartoon  portraiture,  but  with  no  success  in 
characterization;  temperamentally  it  typifies  some 
thing  of  the  Gentleman  of  the  Black  Stock's  humor, 
born  of  the  immediate  occasion. 

The  little  book,  nevertheless,  contained  no  gracious- 
ness;  it  was  more  of  broadside  spirit  than  of  subtle 
sarcasm,  in  which  the  Yankee  was  the  peg  on  which 
to  hang  writ.  It  assumed  the  attitude  in  the  jingles 
of  one's  childhood,  about  "  What  are  little  girls  made 
of? — and  little  boys?"  The  association  of  the  Devil 
with  Henry  Clay  and  Webster  emanated  from  the 
South  Carolinian  distrust  of  compromise  in  national 
issues;  the  sarcastic  framing  of  a  congressional  enact 
ment  forcing  all  schools  and  houses  to  buy  Noah  Web 
ster's  spelling  book  reflected  the  many  debates  as  to 
sectional  differences  and  states'  rights.  The  hero, 
having  been  ruined  by  a  Yankee,  Faust-like  sells  his 
soul  to  the  Devil,  and  in  his  adventures  meets  with 
some  of  the  latter's  victims.  While  Southerners  are 
not  debarred,  they  are  captive  for  minor  offenses, 
indicating  that  the  states  were  already  marked  by  local 
distinctions ;  the  worst  a  Virginian  might  do  was  to  fish 
on  Sunday,  while  Kentucky  horse-stealing  and  Georgia 
swearing  might  be  overlooked.  But  the  Carolinian 
who,  during  the  tariff  acts  of  1832,  dared  take  stand 
with  the  general  government  against  his  State,  was 
worthy  the  worst  hell-fire.  The  acme  of  sin  and  wick 
edness  was  the  Yankee! 

In  the  midst  of  these  diverse  elements,  marked  in 


182    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

1832  by  Virginia's  efforts  to  rid  herself  of  slavery, 
and  by  South  Carolina's  fiery  pronouncement  of  her 
policy  of  Nullification,  the  Gentleman  of  the  Black 
Stock  read  his  journals  and  magazines,  and  took  part 
in  debates  which  widened  the  sectional  breach.  "If 
slavery  can  be  eradicated,"  cried  Charles  James  Faulk 
ner  of  Virginia,  "  in  God's  name,  let  us  get  rid  of  it." 
At  that  moment,  Virginia  would  have  been  glad  of 
Lincoln's  emancipation  proclamation,  at  the  risk  of 
negro  insurrection ;  the  white  man's  indolence  wras  due 
to  the  presence  of  the  slave — or  shall  we  say  rather 
to  the  absence  of  the  artisan? — an  absence  which  de 
noted  the  sacrifice  of  most  Southern  interests  for 
the  sake  of  one.  On  the  other  hand,  Dr.  Cooper 
was  debating  against  "the  manifest  encroachments 
of  the  general  government."  The  tone  of  the  states 
man  was  aggressive,  betokening  a  restiveness,  a  per 
sonal  dissatisfaction  beneath.  Hence  his  energies 
were  all  the  more  concerned,  being  placed  on  the  de 
fensive  with  a  determination  to  protect  his  constitu 
tional  rights  and  to  preserve  his  civilization. 

Southern  magazine  literature  was  materially  im 
pressed  by  the  mental  conservatism  of  the  times; 
there  was  a  solidity  about  it  as  oppressive  as  the  an 
cient  store  of  learning,  which  constituted  ante-bellum 
culture;  it  was  speculative  in  abstruse  detail,  it  was 
descriptive  of  unusual  foreign  travel,  and  its  philos 
ophy  considered  ancient  law  and  order.  In  the  one 
topic  by  which  it  could  make  direct  appeal  to  the 
Southern  people,  it  was  obscured  beneath  the  imme 
diate  and  more  brilliant  fire  of  legislative  debate  on 
the  same  topic.  Besides  which,  except  in  a  limited 
manner,  the  Southerner  never  figured  as  a  purchaser 
of  books.  This  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  Southern 
magazines  had  to  struggle  for  existence,  and  never 
survived;  but  another  reason  goes  further  and  deeper: 
Southern  people  have  never  looked  to  their  authors 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  183 

to  represent  them  in  any  direction.  The  time  will 
come,  and  is  indeed  foreshadowed,  when  from  the 
utilization  in  literature  of  Southern  tradition,  too 
valuable  to  forget,  will  grow  the  message  of  the 
South  as  coming  from  herself.  Miss  Glasgow  has 
touched  the  border  of  such  a  valuable  method,  but  so 
far,  no  one  in  fiction  has  sounded  the  vital  chord 
which  Mr.  Edgar  Gardner  Murphy  has  sounded  in 
his  sane,  practical  exposition  of  Southern  activities 
and  of  Southern  policies,  from  the  standpoint  of 
Southern  initiative. 

Because  letters  had  no  official  position  in  the  life 
of  the  Gentleman  of  the  Black  Stock,  because  he  was 
in  the  habit  of  reading  either  English  or  Northern 
books  rather  than  his  own,  The  Southern  Review,  The 
Literary  Messenger,  and  others  shared  a  similar  fate, 
due  to  causes  which  shall  receive  separate  treatment, 
but  likewise  illustrating  another  evil  of  agricultural 
life,  regulated  in  the  interests  of  slavery.  Meek  looked 
toward  the  rehabilitation  of  the  fine  arts  through  con 
certed  governmental  action — a  view  which  he  held 
despite  his  belonging  "  to  the  straitest  sect  of  our  Po 
litical  Pharisees."  In  his  arguments  against  Jack 
Cadeism,  he  turned  to  Congress,  which  was  in  1841 
debating  the  future  fate  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution, 
endowed  through  foreign  bequeathment.  Once  more 
the  Southern  mind  believed  that  a  university,  as  a 
means  of  cultivation,  could  dominate  a  social  condi 
tion,  and  stand  aloof  as  guardian  of  a  petted  rather 
than  of  an  essential  art. 

in 

i  The  Southern  Literary  Messenger  was  founded  in 
1834  ;  De  Bow's  Commercial  Review  in  1846  ;  one  is 
tempted  to  claim  that  literarily  and  economically  these 
two  journals  represent  fairly  well  the  ante-bellum 
South,  but  the  material  is  either  too  scattered  or  too 


184    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

ponderous  for  convenient  use.  Some  discerning  li 
brarian  of  the  South,  actuated  by  the  great  enthu 
siasm  of  Dr.  Thomas  M.  Owen  of  Alabama,  whose 
bibliographical  researches  are  excellent  and  thorough, 
should  systematize  this  wealth  of  data  by  making 
an  index  practicable.  Ingle,  in  "  Southern  Side 
lights,"  has  with  earnest  endeavors  compressed  much 
of  these  statistics  in  a  handy  volume.  De  Bow,  in 
"  The  Industrial  Resources  of  the  South,"  has  sum 
marized  a  considerable  amount  of  information,  while 
Minor,  in  a  narrative  amounting  to  a  confused  cata 
loguing  of  titles,  has  traced  the  history  of  the  Mes 
senger.  Still,  the  rich  material  is  as  yet  inaccessible. 

But  certain  it  is  that  the  student  of  Southern  con 
ditions  must  resort  to  these  two  magazines  as  typi 
fying  the  mental  attitude  and  the  outward  state  of  the 
South — both  under  the  spell  of  slavery.  While,  as  mere 
foreign  impressions,  Tyrone  Power  (1833),  Trol- 
lope  (1827),  Harriet  Martineau  (1834),  De  Toc- 
queville  (1831)  and  other  travelers,  who  wrote  vol 
umes  based  on  hearsay  and  observation,  are  entitled 
to  consideration  as  testimony  against  a  peculiar  so 
cial  institution,  the  activity  emanating  from  the  people 
themselves  must  be  weighed, — an  activity  which  strove 
to  establish  a  commercial  independence  in  the  South — 
not,  said  Albert  Pike  in  the  Charleston  Convention 
of  1854,  "by  tearing  the  national  flag  asunder,  and 
breaking  up  the  glorious  union  of  the  States,  but  inde 
pendent  as  God  in  His  providence  intended  we  should 
be,  when  He  conferred  upon  the  South  all  the  natural 
advantages  she  possesses." 

The  reports  in  De  Bow  describing  these  Southern 
conventions  which  dealt  with  the  topics  of  naviga 
tion,  transportation,  and  public  roads,  illustrate  the 
social  unrest  of  the  Southern  people.  The  meetings  in 
Macon,  Augusta  and  Memphis  between  1837  and 
1845  sounded  every  aggravated  point  which  marked 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  185 

governmental  discrimination,  and  accentuated  sec 
tional  difference.  The  Union  was  certainly  not  anx 
ious  to  appease  the  Southerner,  did  not  immediately 
hasten  to  secure  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi,  did 
not  encourage  the  commercial  importance  of  South 
ern  ports,  or  recognize,  as  many  would  have  de 
sired,  the  naval  strategic  value  of  the  Southern 
coast.  With  no  incentive,  therefore,  save  that  which 
came  from  within  itself,  with  hope  in  the 
West,  a  section  which — like  the  South — accused  the 
Government  of  neglecting  its  interests  also,  the  South 
was  thrust  into  the  position  of  protecting  its  char 
acteristic  employment,  which  needed  no  governmental 
protection,  but  which  showed  resentment  against  out 
side  interference.  The  development  of  sectional  feel 
ing  is  in  no  way  better  measured  than  by  comparing 
the  spirit  of  the  convention  held  in  Savannah  (1857), 
with  that  held  in  Macon  (1845).  The  change  notice 
able  is  not  unlike  that  in  Calhoun,  who  typifies  its 
extreme  form. 

Consider  for  a  moment  the  suspicion  in  the 
Southern  mind,  created  by  Northern  energy  directed 
against  all  that  constituted  Southern  business.  This 
suspicion  attributed  Northern  prosperity  to  slavery, 
and  claimed  that  the  South  was  being  retarded  simply 
that  the  neighbor  might  flourish.  What  would  hap 
pen,  the  planter  exclaimed,  should  slavery  be  imme 
diately  abolished  ?  New  England  would  go  bankrupt, 
and  English  mills  go  empty.  Yancey,  when  he  saw 
the  wharves  of  Boston  crowded  with  cotton  bales,  no 
longer  wondered  at  Northern  prosperity,  while  the 
Southerners,  in  convention  assembled,  strove  earnestly 
to  establish  a  direct  line  of  communication  between 
Liverpool  and  Southern  ports.  The  South  smarted 
under  neglect,  claiming  that  if  it  lacked  luxuries,  and 
savoir  vivre,  if  it  were  wanting  "  in  associated  indus 
try,  in  energy,  and  in  seaport  cities,"  it  was  because 


186    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

in  the  North  alone,  enterprise  was  being  stimulated 
"  by  the  outpouring  of  revenue/' 

This  grievance  was  not  wholly  devoid  of  the 
South's  recognition  of  those  vital  forces  which  made 
the  North  quickly  respond  to  and  profit  by  the  money 
thus  spent;  public  spirit  and  enterprise,  no  less  than 
associated  labor  and  capital,  were  not  as  strongly 
developed  in  the  South.  But,  in  the  other  scale  as 
balance,  tha  men  of  the  slave  states  turned  to  the 
gentle  aspects  of  their  sectional  life — the  refined  qui 
escence  of  the  rural  community.  Said  Forsyth,  "  The 
South  .  .  .  claims  equality,  if  not  precedence,  in  the 
republic  of  morals  and  intellect,  in  freedom  from 
crime,  in  freedom  from  pauperism,  and  from  that 
most  fearful  of  God's  judgments  on  man,  and  the 
immediate  fruit  of  pauperism  and  crime — insan- 

ity." 

In  condensed  form,  here  is  the  essence  of  more 
than  half  the  arguments  in  favor  of  slavery — points 
that  are  strongest  links  in  the  armor  of  the  Southern 
er's  defense.  But  such  arguments  have  now  ceased  to 
have  significance,  save  as  they  intensify  the  portrait 
of  the  Gentleman  of  the  Black  Stock.  The  South  is 
freed  of  slavery,  has  profited  by  terrible  experience, 
and  has  suffered  the  drawbacks  of  an  institution  that 
held  in  abeyance  the  full  freedom  of  the  white.  The 
South  has,  as  Alderman  says,  experienced  the  educative 
force  of  defeat,  and  would  hardly  hold  to-day,  think 
ing  as  it  does,  that  its  slave  arguments  were  logical, 
even  though  they  might  have  been  necessary. 

For  half  a  century,  the  Gentleman  of  the  Black- 
Stock  did  not  change  ;  he  intensified.  His  bitter  dis 
like  of  the  abolitionists  in  the  North  obscured  any 
charity  he  might  have  had  toward  the  Yankees,  had 
abolition  not  existed,  or  had  it  been  content  to  work 
within  the  limits  of  its  own  territory.  Moral  enthu 
siasm  is  self-consuming;  it  is  as  unreasonable  in  its 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  187 

demands  and  means,  as  the  spirit  of  persistent  opposi 
tion  it  begets.  If  the  Southerner  regarded  the  abo 
litionist  as  a  malignant  hater  of  all  that  constituted 
his  life,  and  as  one  who  on  all  occasions  strove  to  mis 
represent  the  South  and  to  incite  the  slaves,  it  was 
only  natural  that  teachers,  preachers,  merchants  and 
drummers — termed  alike  Yankees — should  soon  come 
under  popular  aversion. 

The  North  showed  no  willingness  to  arbitrate,  and 
the  South  fast  reached  that  view  where  arbitration 
would  have  been  refused  had  it  been  offered.  But 
the  Gentleman  of  the  Black  Stock,  in  his  appeal  to 
the  South  for  unification  in  sectional  action,  revealed 
wherein  there  was  unrest  and  doubt  within  the  South, 
as  to  the  inviolable  rights  of  slavery  to  exist.  In 
fact,  the  more  tenable  position  of  states'  rights  was 
at  first  overclouded  and  somewhat  tainted  by  the 
monotonous  arguments  hurled  in  favor  of  slavery, 
more  impassioned  than  true. 

Therefore,  if  they  were  to  take  an  extreme  posi 
tion,  the  Southerners  saw  clearly  that  they  must  not 
patronize  the  North  ;  that  they  must  not  employ 
Northern  teachers  or  Northern  mechanics.  These 
must  come  from  the  South.  The  clan  spirit  was  apos 
trophized  ;  one  writer  in  his  appeal  cried :  "  Is  the 
spirit  of  the  Habershams,  the  Macintoshes,  the  Tat- 
nalls,  the  Troups,  and  all  that  gallant  host,  whose 
name  is  legion,  extinct?" 

The  Southerners  expended  much  energy  in  repeat 
ing  weakly  what  some  of  their  best  men  had  said 
ably ;  their  speeches,  dissertations,  reviews,  are  all  ver 
bose,  and  far  from  resembling  that  remarkable  ex 
ample  of  the  one  man  from  Mississippi,  who  in  assem 
bly  begged  to  be  heard,  inasmuch  as  his  speech  was 
only  forty-six  words  long.  They  argued  in  a  circle; 
they  could  not  break  from  the  chain  that  held  them, 
though  they  might  shift  their  position. 


1 88    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

They  therefore  examined  the  state  attitude  toward 
popular  education  as  their  most  progressive  outlet, 
and  began  recommending  instruction  for  the  masses; 
the  aristocratic  feeling  sought  to  recognize  common 
humanity.  Still,  even  here,  the  Southerner  miscal 
culated.  Trescott,  of  South  Carolina,  failed  to  dis 
cover  the  restless  spirit  among  the  people,  because  he 
failed  to  give  proper  position  to  the  middle  class 
which  was  so  strong  in  New  England.  "  Fortunately 
for  us,"  he  wrote,  "our  institutions  are  free  from 
this  fundamental  difficulty  [of  possible  revolution]. 
The  great  mass  of  coarse  and  unintellectual  labor 
which  the  necessities  of  the  country  require,  is  per 
formed  by  a  race  not  only  especially  fitted  for  its  per 
formance,  but  especially  unfitted  and  disqualified  for 
that  mental  improvement  which  is  generally  under 
stood  by  the  term  education." 

This  very  statement,  especially  in  the  logical  weak 
ness  of  its  latter  part,  is  indicative  of  the  false  cul 
ture  of  the  Southerner,  a  culture  that  could  not  iden 
tify  the  mind  with  the  soil.  He  was  likewise  inclined 
to  juggle  with  terms,  to  speak  of  slavery  as  an  insti 
tution  rather  than  an  investment,  and  hence  as  being 
removed  from  the  immediate  necessity  of  overwork  in 
order  to  obtain  proper  returns  on  employed  capital; 
even  his  scheme  for  education  became  pledged  to 
slavery.  He  argued  that  the  State  was  not  bound  to 
provide  learning  "  for  the  bulk  of  the  laboring  class,0 
but  that  it  was  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the  State 
that  every  white  citizen  should  be  sufficiently  educated 
to  "  enable  him  intelligently  and  actively  to  control 
and  direct  the  slave  labor  of  the  State."  Apart  from 
this,  Trescott  voiced  the  South  in  his  firm  belief  that 
abstract  studies,  the  finer  and  more  delicate  types  of 
literature,  would  come  in  the  wake  of  wealth  and 
leisure.  The  identification  of  labor  with  the  black 
alone — a  labor  requiring  no  inventiveness,  but  only 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  189 

strict  obedience — was  a  curse  which  added  another 
false  element  to  the  interpretation  of  Southern  aris 
tocracy. 

There  is  small  doubt  of  the  existence  in  the  South 
of  a  strong  feeling  that  culture,  save  that  which  came 
from  the  habits  and  manners  of  social  intercourse,  was 
not  as  immediate  in  importance  as  cotton,  sugar-cane, 
and  negroes  ;  instructors  were  not  regarded  with  that 
high  deference  which  only  comes  where  the  commu 
nity  believes  strongly  in  the  old  adage,  "Knowledge 
is  power."  In  fact,  the  sectarian  establishments  of  the 
Lower  South,  many  of  them  more  intent  on  religious 
wrangling  than  on  practical  instruction,  constituted  the 
larger  part  of  the  school  system.  The  clergy,  therefore, 
was  left  chiefly  in  control  of  instruction;  outside  of 
this  body,  the  Southerners  did  not  object  to  anyone 
turning  his  hand  to  teaching,  notwithstanding  the 
fact  he  might  be  wholly  untrained  for  the  purpose. 
What  they  were  most  particular  about,  however,  was 
to  prevent  the  schools  from  using  books  inimical  to 
their  social  and  their  agricultural  institutions. 

The  Gentleman  of  the  Black  Stock  was  thoroughly 
convinced  that  the  South  was  irretrievably  different 
from  the  North, — in  "  life,  habits,  thoughts,  and 
aims " ;  he  was  indignant  over  the  fact  that  South 
ern  booksellers  were  in  a  "  state  of  peonage  "  to  the 
"  barons  of  Cliff-Street,"  who  merely  "  manufac 
tured  "  schoolbooks,  disregarding  the  requirements  of 
the  different  sections.  The  only  constant  factor  in 
education  for  the  whole  country  rested  in  the  classics  ; 
the  Southerner  granted  the  universality  in  Greek  and 
Latin;  but  history  and  geography,  and  all  references 
relating  to  climate,  productions,  politics,  and  society, 
demanded  modification  in  the  light  of  sectional  inter 
ests.  "  What  is  to  be  done  with  geographies,"  asks 
a  writer  in  De  Bow,  "  that  tell  pupils  '  states  are 
divided  into  towns  and  counties f?  as  if,  out  of  New 


190    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

England,  the  use  of  town,  as  synonymous  with  parish, 
district,  or  township,  was  usual;  that  devote  two  pages 
to  Connecticut  onions  and  broom  corn,  and  ten  lines 
to  Louisiana  and  sugar  ?  of  histories  that  are  silent 
about  Texas?  of  first  readers  that  declare  all  spelling 
but  Noah  Webster's  '  vulgar '  and  '  not  used  in  good 
society'?  and  of  'speakers'  that  abound  in  selections 
for  Southern  declamation,  made  almost  exclusively 
from  Northern  debates  in  Congress,  and  from  aboli 
tion  poets?" 

While  it  was  the  general  belief  that  both  brain  and 
hands  should  be  called  into  service,  it  was  only  in  the 
interests  of  the  South  that  they  should  be  trained. 
"  Give  us,"  cried  the  Honorable  Gentleman  from 
Louisiana,  "such  excellent  examples  of  schoolbooks 
as  Fitzhugh's  '  Sociology  for  the  South.' '  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Gentleman  of  the  Black  Stock  pointed 
to  Calhoun  as  a  believer  in  Southern  education  for 
Southern  people,  a  sentiment  uttered  in  a  different 
manner,  but  with  as  much  political  significance,  by 
Jefferson  at  an  earlier  period. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE   VOICE   OF  THE   OLD   SOUTH 

BEING  A  CONSIDERATION  OF  THE  LITERARY  CLAIMS 
OF  ORATORS — TYPIFIED  IN  CALHOUN,  CLAY,  AND 
HAYNE. 

IN  "  Letters  of  the  British  Spy,"  Wirt  deplores  the 
preponderance  of  volubility  over  eloquence  in  national 
and  state  legislatures.  There  is  no  doubt  that,  literarily, 
the  majority  of  speeches  are  not  only  repetition,  but 
discursive  without  strength ;  they  are  either  dependent 
upon  their  intrinsic  weight,  which  is  in  turn  dependent 
upon  the  individual  force  of  the  statesman,  or  else 
they  fall  into  one  of  the  three  divisions  which  Wirt 
designated  as  being  the  defects  of  American  oratory. 
Many  of  the  speeches  were  lacking  wholly  in  general 
knowledge;  in  close,  logical  thinking;  in  ornament. 
We  reach  a  period  in  American  history  where  the 
vision  is  limited  by  sectional  demands,  where  logic  is 
molded  to  suit  conditions,  where  false  premises  are 
sincerely  believed  for  the  sake  of  the  desired  conclu 
sions. 

Wirt  stood  on  the  border  between  the  Revolutionary 
and  the  National  Statesman;  he  lived  until  1834,  being 
allowed  sufficient  time  to  come  in  touch  with  the  slav 
ery  agitation  in  its  compromise  form.  Although  of  ju 
dicial  weight,  he  was  not  a  statesman;  he  was  a  man 
in  whom  the  humanities  claimed  a  large  part  of  his 
taste,  who  possessed  some  of  the  qualities  of  a  Wash 
ington  Irving,  with  a  large  share  of  the  casual  re 
flection  of  Addison.  One  finds  him  the  Southern 

191 


IQ2     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

gentleman  with  a  classical  culture,  with  certain  grace, 
a  large  amount  of  charm,  and  a  responsive  apprecia 
tion. 

Kennedy's  memoirs  of  Wirt  are  full  of  agreeable 
incident,  indicative  of  the  peculiar  culture  of  the  man, 
•which  in  itself  was  typical  of  many  men  in  the  South. 
Wirt  was  neither  deep  nor  original  in  his  thinking; 
his  education  was  desultory,  his  interests  wide  rather 
than  concentrated.  He  was  conscious  of  literary  as 
piration  as  an  outlet  for  a  certain  pliable  imagina 
tion,  rather  than  as  a  means  of  forceful  expression; 
at  times  his  letters  are  spirited  and  overflowing  with 
quaint  comments  on  persons  and  things,  more  external 
than  penetrating,  more  in  the  manner  of  the  poet  than 
of  the  statesman  with  a  consuming  point  of  view.  His 
expression,  as  well  as  his  ordering  of  detail,  was  not 
spontaneous. 

While  preparing  the  biography  of  Henry,  he  wrote 
to  Judge  Carr  (Richmond,  August  20,  1815) :  "I  can 
tell  you,  sir,  that  it  is  much  the  most  oppressive  liter 
ary  enterprise  that  ever  I  embarked  in ; .  .  .  this  .  .  . 
business  of  stating  facts  with  rigid  precision,  not  one 
jot  more  or  less  than  the  truth — what  the  deuce  has 
a  lawyer  to  do  with  truth ! "  Such  impatience  is 
largely  characteristic  of  Southern  writers;  the  concise 
arrangement  of  facts  is  in  a  measure  dependent  upon 
mental  habit,  and  this  in  turn  draws  strength  from 
precision  of  outward  habit.  Plantation  environment 
was  ample  and  extravagant;  expansiveness  of  nature, 
which  found  its  most  marked  channel  in  hospitality, 
resulted  in  expansiveness  of  expression.  This  often 
developed  in  a  plethora  of  high-sounding  phrases, 
colored  by  excess  of  feeling,  without  any  particular 
reference  to  proportion.  The  Southerner  read  poetry 
leisurely,  regarding  it  as  born  of  an  inspiration  which 
directed  all  form,  and  removed  it  from  technical  con 
struction.  Therefore,  the  Southerner  wrote  his  poetry 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  193 

after  the  same  fashion ;  when  he  was  metrical,  he  never 
troubled  to  prune  halting  lines,  weak  endings  or  the 
like;  he  sent  the  poem  to  the  local  column  as  he  first 
conceived  it. 

So  with  the  other  writers  in  their  particular  lines ; 
if  they  were  contemplative,  their  work  became  a  solid 
and  sedate  exposition  of  personal  views  and  personal 
tastes;  they  were  not  prejudiced  in  that  particular; 
they  were  affirmative  and  fell  back  upon  ancient  prec 
edence  for  support.  In  Wirt's  instance,  the  current 
of  events  must  contain  elements  of  beauty  to  gain 
his  deep  sympathy;  he  was  not  the  true  literary  man, 
but  the  Southern  gentleman  who  had  literary  tastes 
which  accorded  with  his  temperament.  It  is  small 
wonder,  therefore,  that  there  should  have  crept  into 
his  biography  of  Henry  certain  fiction  which,  trans 
cending  fact,  gave  satisfaction  to  himself.  For  we 
find  him  writing  in  this  same  letter :  "  I  have  some 
times  a  notion  of  trying  the  plan  of  Botta,  who  has 
written  an  account  of  the  American  war,  and  made 
speeches  himself  for  his  prominent  characters,  imitat 
ing,  in  this,  the  historians  of  Greece  and  Rome." 

In  other  words,  Wirt  was  a  devotee  of  the  imagina 
tion;  his  philosophy  took  the  shape  of  precepts  which 
he  scattered  among  the  rising  generation  as  all  South 
erners  were  accustomed  to  do;  but  freed  from  legal 
analyses,  he  was  now  concerned  with  fancy.  "  What 
kind  of  writings/'  he  asks,  "  embrace  the  widest  circle 
of  readers,  and  bid  the  fairest  to  flourish  in  never-fad 
ing  bloom?"  His  reasoning  is  that  of  the  time,  in 
dicative  of  Southern  culture,  of  what  was  common 
to  the  country  gentleman.  "If,"  he  continues,  "you 
say  political  works,  count  the  readers  of  Locke  and 
Sidney,  and  compare  them  with  those  of  Shakespeare, 
Milton,  Dryden,  and  Pope.  If  you  choose  to  come 
down  to  the  present  day,  compare  the  readers  of  Ham 
ilton  and  Madison  with  those  of  Walter  Scott  and 


194    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

Lord  Byron."  Thus  he  uttered  his  personal  opinions, 
and  to  him  they  became  dicta.  He  believed  in  the 
weight  of  personal  conviction. 

Wirt's  prominence  as  a  national  figure  had  its  limits ; 
although  attaining  nearness  to  the  highest  posts,  he 
was  not  destined  to  reach  much  beyond  the  Attorney- 
Generalship  under  Monroe  and  J.  Q.  Adams,  yet  he 
could  claim  a  nomination  for  the  Presidency.  Such 
men  as  William  C.  Preston  and  Hugh  Swinton  Legare 
turned  to  him  for  legal  training.  We  may  place  Wirt, 
therefore,  on  a  line  commanding  a  view  backward  into 
the  Revolution,  and  forward  to  the  first  ominous 
threats  of  secession,  which  came  with  the  pronounce 
ment  of  South  Carolina's  nullification  policy.  He  was 
not  prophetic,  but  still  possessed  the  power  to  deal 
with  the  abstract  idea  separated  from  the  practical  and 
sectional  demands.  He  was  legally  safe  and  sure, 
hardly  given  to  partisan  warfare.  He  was  a  Gentle 
man  of  the  Black  Stock,  knowing  his  Coke  and  his 
Shakespeare,  his  Greek  and  his  Latin.  That  he  was 
close  to  Addison  and  Steele,  "The  Old  Bachelor" 
(1810)  affords  full  evidence,  and  it  furthermore 
brings  together  a  coterie  of  literary  tastes,  among 
whom  were  Dabney  Carr,  Judge  Tucker,  and  George 
Tucker,  who  was  afterwards  the  professor  of  moral 
philosophy  in  the  University  of  Virginia. 

The  absolute  correctness  of  Kennedy's  life  of  Wirt 
has  been  questioned,  inasmuch  as  verbal  changes  were 
made  by  him  in  some  of  the  letters,  but  the  two  vol 
umes  form  most  interesting  reading,  marked  largely 
by  a  narrative  and  human  quality  rather  than  by 
critical  insight.  One  obtains  portraits  of  men  from 
the  ample  side  rather  than  from  the  close  analytical 
side.  Not  only  does  such  a  personage  bring  one  in 
touch  with  Jefferson,  but  also  with  Calhoun  of  the 
extreme  party,  ll.nl  \Yirt  not  owed  much  to  the  old 
school,  he  might  have  seen  more  clearly  where  the 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  195 

sections  were  tending,  where  the  politicians  were  lead 
ing  the!  South. 

The  voice  of  the  Old  South  increased  in  volume 
by  bequeathment ;  it  became  louder  but  not  richer;  it 
turned  everything  to  its  own  account.  In  its  train 
ing  it  was  steeped  in  its  economic  creed,  which  worked 
slowly  in  undermining  principles  in  order  to  save 
an  institution.  In  New  England,  during  August, 
1837,  Emerson,  speaking  on  "  The  American  Scholar," 
was  saying :  "  We  will  walk  on  our  own  feet ;  we  will 
work  with  our  own  hands;  we  will  speak  our  own 
minds."  But  in  none  of  these  respects  was  the 
South  accomplishing  much;  its  every  energy  was 
spent  in  holding  fast  where  it  was,  with  only  one 
ambition — to  extend  the  territory  of  slavery ;  all  whites 
were  ashamed  to  work  with  their  hands,  and,  more 
over,  with  the  slavocracy  in  charge  of  legislation,  the 
Southern  non-slaveholder  was  afraid  to  speak  his 
mind.  Statesmanship  was  powerful  and  persistent, 
but  it  was  not  far-seeing. 

The  literary  claim  of  the  orators  of  this  period  is 
handicapped  by  the  historical  sequence  of  events;  had 
the  elements  of  success,  of  truth,  been  in  what  they 
uttered — truth  to  its  fullest,  its  purest  depth — then 
these  men  might  have  stood  higher  in  the  final  esti 
mate.  Hayne,  Calhoun,  and  Clay  represent  phases 
of  sectional  aggravation;  they  vary  in  intensity,  and 
their  earnestness  carried  them  above  the  tenability  of 
their  positions.  Calhoun  looms  upon  the  horizon — a 
great  man  whose  perspective  keeps  him  from  being 
among  the  greatest;  he  lacked  one  of  the  essential 
graces — humor;  he  was  inclined  at  times  to  be  pon 
derous.  Certainly,  his  speeches,  pointing  to  an  apos 
tasy  which  was  sincere,  however  much  it  might  be  due 
to  distortion,  were  full  of  inconsistencies. 

The  voice  of  the  Old  South  was  involved  in  issues, 
not  in  principles ;  but  it  is  only  fair  to  be  particular  in 


196    THE   LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

noting  that  though  the  period  saw  the  slaveholder 
in  the  ascendent,  the  whole  voice  of  the  Old  South 
was  not  sounded  in  one  direction.  The  political  de- 
markations  of  the  country  flowed  into  party  fac 
tions  kept  alive  by  no  fundamental  ideas,  but  by  shift 
ing  requirements.  Even  the  parties  lost  their  sharp 
distinctions  by  a  general  acceptance  of  the  undeniable 
fact  that  legislation,  whatever  the  party  support,  was 
being  made  in  the  interest  of  either  one  of  two  sec 
tions — North  or  South.  Webster  and  Hayne  were 
types. 

Take  each  historical  move  in  the  struggle  for 
slavery,  and  you  will  find  around  it  ringing  the  voice 
of  the  Old  South,  with  some  of  its  constructive  rich 
ness  pledged  to  perpetuate  that  upon  which  its  very 
commercial  existence  depended.  Peculiar  as  it  may 
seem,  Calhoun's  love  for  the  Union  was  very  great; 
he  believed,  with  all  the  force  of  his  Southern  being, 
that  to  save  the  Union,  one  must  save  slavery;  when 
he  foretold  the  coming  struggle,  his  grief  was  for  the 
Union  which  must  go  in  order  that  slavery  might  stay. 

The  voice  of  the  Old  South,  however,  had  not  as 
yet  relinquished  the  Union ;  it  based  its  arguments  as 
to  states'  rights  upon  the  strict,  construction  of  the 
Constitution.  When  Nullification  blazed  through 
South  Carolina,  Legare,  Grimke,  Petigru,  Drayton, 
and  Huger  opposed  it  by  identifying  themselves  with 
the  Union  and  States'  Rights  Party.  Men  separated 
on  the  merest  shades  of  interpretations,  and  it  was  not 
until  war  itself  commenced,  that  party  differences 
faded  before  the  undeniable  fact  that  one  section  was 
fighting  another.  Then  it  was  that  the  fire-eater  and 
the  abolitionist — two  mischief-makers,  one  dangerous 
because  lacking  in  moral  idea,  the  other  dangerous  be 
cause  ignorant  how  to  adjust  a  moral  idea  to  actual 
conditions — these  two  were  lost  in  the  love  of  the 
Southerner  for  his  soil — a  love  which  brought  Lee  to 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  197 

the  head  of  the  Confederate  army.  Character  is  above 
intellect,  says  Emerson;  history  needs  to  take  cogni 
zance  of  the  national  value  of  sectional  defeat.  The 
voice  of  the  Old  South,  therefore,  must  be  estimated 
as  a  phase  in  national  development ;  its  literary  quality 
is  enriched  only  by  personality,  and  the  peculiar  civili 
zation  from  which  it  emanated. 

There  was  little  difference  in  the  education  of  the 
orator  of  this  regime  from  that  of  the  constructive 
statesman ;  the  ultimate  test  of  its  value,  measured  by 
the  manner  in  which  conditions  were  met,  could  not 
fairly  represent  its  true  worth.  The  spirit  of  the  times 
was  sectionalism ;  the  orator  was  representative  of  the 
trust  imposed  upon  him  by  the  people ;  the  strict  con 
struction  of  the  Constitution  was  argued  in  terms  of 
state  sovereignty,  and  this  latter  theory — only  half 
right — was  aggravated  by  the  demands  of  slavery. 

The  balance  of  power  shifted  from  Virginia  to  the 
Lower  South,  and  with  it  came  families  from  the 
Old  Dominion,  bringing  with  them  much  of  the  tra 
dition  and  charm  of  a  somewhat  different  life.  It 
was  Gladstone  who  wisely  averred  that  a  system, 
however  justly  condemned  in  one  respect,  had  not  the 
force  to  undermine  the  character  of  the  individual  or 
class  brought  in  touch  with  it.  This  was  exemplified 
in  the  career  of  Dabney,  the  ideal  Southern  planter, 
whose  memoirs*  are  so  well  worth  perusing.  His 
home  was  on  the  water's  edge  of  the  Chesapeake — a 
large  red  brick  house,  set  in  the  midst  of  groves  and 
fields,  with  an  approach  through  a  lane  more  than  a 
mile  and  three-quarters  long. 

Dabney's  attitude  toward  his  negro  slaves  was  that 
they  were  his  people,  a  trust  imposed  upon  him  by 
economic  conditions.  When  the  Southampton  insur 
rection  took  place  in  Virginia,  he  entrusted  his  entire 
family  to  the  care  of  his  house  servants ;  when,  in  1835, 
the  exodus  from  Virginia  to  the  Lower  South  began, 


igS    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

and  he  determined  to  locate  in  Mississippi,  Dabney 
took  care  that  in  his  transfer  no  negro  ties  should 
be  disrespected,  and  the  three  months'  pioneer  travel 
through  the  Cotton  States  called  forth  an  amount  of 
duty  from  the  blacks  in  return  for  his  consideration. 
Flashes  of  this  life  are  evident  throughout  "  Don 
Miff,"  a  novel  by  Dabney's  son,  Virginius. 

In  this  relationship,  we  note  one  of  the  arguments 
offered  in  favor  of  slavery;  the  struggle  for  existence 
did  not  worry  the  negro;  he  was  much  nearer  the 
white  than  he  could  ever  hope  to  be  in  freedom.  Dab 
ney,  an  ideal  example  of  master,  regarded  his  slaves 
as  more  than  chattels ;  he  considered  their  hours  of 
work  and  recreation;  he  taught  them  the  varied  uses 
of  the  rich  soil;  he  had  half-Saturdays  for  rest,  and 
offered  prizes  as  incentive  for  cotton  picking.  Yet, 
despite  this,  the  Mississippians  regarded  him  askance, 
because  he  was  aristocratic  in  feeling  and  believed  in 
going  to  the  fields  mounted,  rather  than  afoot. 

Excellent  glimpses  of  life  in  the  Lower  South  are 
given  in  "  A  Southern  Planter  " ;  the  romancer  could 
do  no  better  than  deal  with  Jack  Cotton,  a  highway 
man  who  robbed  planters  on  the  road  between  Vicks- 
burg  and  Memphis;  the  painter  could  procure  no 
more  agreeable  picture  than  the  buxom  negro  woman 
walking  squarely  down  between  cotton  rows,  picking 
with  both  hands  from  either  side,  and  crooning  some 
darkey  melody.  In  those  days  it  took  a  week  to  travel 
from  Dabney's  place  in  Burleigh  to  Pass  Christian, 
the  center  of  summer  gayety  for  the  Gulf  planter,  as 
White  Sulphur  Springs  was  for  the  Virginian.  Thither 
he  would  go,  passing  squatters,  one  of  whom  had 
framed  the  only  letter  he  had  ever  received  by  post, 
slowly  onward,  passing  families  from  Mobile,  meeting 
with  planters  from  New  Orleans,  all  intent  on  yacht 
ing  and  racing,  all  owners  of  country-seats  amidst 
live-oaks  and  magnolias. 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  199 

Now,  the  voice  of  the  Old  South  was  nurtured  in 
such  an  atmosphere;  from  the  standpoint  of  character, 
the  son  of  the  older  generation  was  bequeathed  on 
all  hands  traditional  views,  as  regards  home,  women, 
rank,  politics;  he  was  given  no  incentive  to  supplant 
this  conservative  order  by  a  new  and  democratic  one ; 
nor  could  he  have  found,  if  he  had  looked  elsewhere, 
a  richer  field  for  his  talents.  Early  in  life  he  was 
brought  in  contact  with  his  future  associates;  as  for 
merly,  his  ancestry  could  boast  of  the  influence  of 
Wythe,  so  now,  they  might  turn  with  pride  to  Moses 
Waddell  (1770-1840)  as  a  teacher  of  wide  reputation. 
In  his  "Life  of  Petigru,"  Grayson  writes:  "  The  Wil- 
lington  school  was  a  sort  of  Eton  or  Rugby  of  Ameri 
can  manufacture,  and  the  doctor  at  its  head,  the  Caro 
lina  Dr.  Arnold*"'  William  H.  Crawford,  George 
McDuffie  and  Petigru  Held  memories  of  these  primi 
tive  school  clays,  when,  beneath  an  open  sky,  the  blast 
of  a  horn  assembled  the  pupils.  Waddell's  career 
includes  teaching  in  Georgia  and  South  Carolina;  he 
filled  the  presidency  of  the  University  of  Georgia,  and 
was  the  brother-in-law  of  Calhoun. 

There  was  also  another  way  for  the  Old  South  to 
receive  education,  a  way  typified  by  Philip  Henry 
Gosse's  experience  in  Alabama  during  1838,  where, 
reduced  in  circumstances,  and  more  interested  in  his 
own  future  as  a  naturalist  than  in  the  society  around 
him,  he  was  impressed  with  a  fragmentary  view,  some 
what  dependent  upon  his  personal  moods  and  con 
veniences. 

He  went  to  Dallas,  Alabama,  as  tutor  for  the  sons 
of  the  Hon.  Chief  Justice  Reuben,  passing  through 
neglected  pastures,  where  the  buzzard  did  duty  as 
scavenger,  but  where  he  found  the  wild  raspberry  and 
strawberry  plentiful.  In  contrast  with  this  primi- 
tiveness,  was  the  hospitality  that  met  him,  where,  in 
the  North,  he  had  suffered  indignity  because  of  the  cir- 


200    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

cumstance  that  he  was  British.  Here,  amidst  South 
ern  creepers,  lilacs,  and  the  trumpets  of  the  scarlet 
cypress  vine,  amidst  honeysuckle,  and  sweetbriar, 
"  that  made  the  hot  air  ache  with  perfume,"  he  held 
his  rough-and-ready  school. 

As  a  naturalist,  Gosse  treasured  some  agreeable 
descriptions  of  the  lavishness  of  Alabama  vegetation, 
in  this  respect  being  impressed,  as  Fanny  Kemble  was 
in  Georgia,  with  the  picture  of  the  country.  But 
Gosse's  impressions  were  a  strange  mixture  of  ad 
verse  criticism  and  admiration,  based  on  chance  ob 
servation.  In  an  undeveloped  country,  a  traveler  is 
always  held  under  suspicion ;  coming  among  strangers 
directly  from  the  North,  Gosse  was  sensitive  to  a  cer 
tain  scrutiny  which  he  attributed  to  a  spirit  of  law 
lessness  among  an  easy-going  rural  population.  So 
mistrustful  were  they  that,  according  to  his  state 
ment,  his  letters  were  opened,  the  better  to  be  assured 
that  they  contained  naught  in  disparagement  of  the 
"  domestic  institution." 

He  lived  much  in  the  open,  and  saw  crude  plows 
used  in  the  field,  and  sometimes  witnessed  cruel  treat 
ment  among  the  cotton-pickers.  After  he  had  dis 
missed  his  pupils  from  their  split  pine-log  desks,  he 
would  wander  the  forests  in  search  of  specimens,  with 
ear  atune  to  the  mocking-bird,  with  eye  noting  the 
chinaberry  tree  and  its  lilac  bloom.  Life  came  in 
flashes  to  him,  and  the  beetle  was  the  incident  of  the 
moment.  Occasionally  he  gave  himself  up  to  the 
pleasure  of  the  hour — miniature  glimpses  of  distinc 
tively  Southern  attributes — pronunciations  of  speech, 
enthusiastic  comment  on  Southern  waffles,  humorous 
references  to  the  negro  who  stood  guard  at  table  with 
the  fly  brush,  impressionistic  descriptions  of  a  'possum 
hunt,  with  a  Major  wearing  a  broad  Panama  hat  and 
a  pink  shirt;  and,  finally,  a  snap-shot  view  of  the 
manner  in  which  cotton  was  shipped  on  flat-boats 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  201 

down  the  Alabama  River — these  points  are  the  local 
color  which  the  English  tutor  could  not  fail  to  carry 
home  with  him. 

And  it  was  in  this  atmosphere,  and  largely  under 
these  conditions,  that  the  orators  of  the  Lower  South 
were  reared ;  they  grew  up  in  practically  a  pioneer  coun 
try;  their  legislative  interest  was  pledged  toward  open 
ing  up  the  cotton  region,  and  defining  the  territory 
bordering  the  Gulf — a  strange  mixture  of  Spanish 
claim,  of  Indian  contention,  of  Mexican  demand,  and 
of  trading  aggrandizement.  When  the  voice  of  the  Old 
South  was  not  concerned  in  the  national  assembly, 
it  was  involved  in  establishing  more  clearly  the  sov 
ereign  rights  of  the  State  it  had  represented  as  senator 
and  now  represented  as  governor.  The  history  of 
George  M.  Troup  (1780-1856)  of  Georgia  is  practi 
cally  the  history  of  that  State  from  1800  to  the  Civil 
War.  And  curiously  at  first,  until  the  adjustment  of 
border  lines,  Georgia  was  largely  the  history  of  the 
Lower  South,  since  from  its  original  grant  Alabama 
and  Mississippi  were  carved. 

Georgia's  early  history  was  characterized  by  law 
lessness,  which  found  outlet  in  political  duels,  William 
H.  Crawford  being  an  adept  in  that  method  of  satis 
faction,  and  George  McDuffie  of  Carolina  bearing  the 
outward  marks  of  conflict.  A  corrupt  legislature 
early  acquitted  itself  (1794)  in  the  Yazoo  transac 
tions,  which  filled  the  pockets  of  land  speculators,  and 
furnished  channels  for  neat  points  of  argument,  when 
the  State  of  Georgia  and  the  good  citizens  repudiated 
the  sale.  The  spirit  of  speculation,  wild  trading,  ob 
scure  title  deeds,  the  Yankee  sharpness  of  a  mixed 
population,  the  peculiar  class  demarkations,  conduced 
to  make,  the  region  one  in  which  legal  practice  was 
profitable,  and  in  which  legal  decisions  became  prece 
dence.  It  was  the  period  of  partisan  leaders  and 
"  flush  times." 


202    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

These  orators  of  the  Old  South  were  the  mainstay  of 
nationalism  at  a  time  when  New  England  was  more 
intent  on  commercial  development  than  on  union.  It 
was  the  genius  of  Calhoun,  before  he  became  obsessed 
by  a  theory  which  made  him  a  special  pleader,  that 
welded  patriotic  forces  together  sufficiently  to  meet 
the  War  of  1812.  New  England  opposed  the  Em 
bargo  acts  as  vigorously  as  ever  the  South  did  the 
tariff.  The  War  Congress  was  largely  moved  by 
Southern  sentiment,  by  Southern  patriotism.  In 
1809,  Troup's  voice  was  raised  in  warning  to  Mass 
achusetts — that  the  Embargo  was  a  matter  of  national 
interest  and  not  of  sectional  discrimination  ;  that  it 
was  false  for  the  North  to  believe  that  the  South  sup 
ported  the  Embargo  simply  because  it  had  no  commer 
cial  interests  at  stake.  "  Sir,"  he  cried  prophetic 
ally,  "  in  this  sentiment  .  .  .  is  to  be  sought  that 
jealousy  which  has  given  rise  to  so  many  evils,  and 
from  which  such  serious  evils  are  yet  to  be  appre- 
hended." 

The  voice  of  the  Old  South,  until  1850,  was  divided 
in  its  devotion  to  the  Union  and  to  slavery;  then  it 
declared  itself  emphatically  for  the  sentiment  of  seces 
sion.  There  is  no  doubt  that  at  every  point  it  was 
goaded  in  the  national  assembly,  and  often  its  protest 
against  neglect  was  a  warning  rather  than  an  opposi 
tion.  Such  men  as  Troup  were  of  high  integrity  and 
true  civic  devotion ;  they  saw  the  South  neglected,  even 
as  they  witnessed  how  the  West  was  made  a  means 
toward  commercial  ends. 

Troup  was  an  interesting  combination  of  Southern 
elements  of  culture;  his  speech  was  vigorous  and  in 
clusive,  his  letters  easy  and  graphic.  The  men  of 
his  generation  were  less  brilliant  than  their  predeces 
sors  because  of  their  special  interests,  but  they  were 
bequeathed  a  large  share  of  administrative  ability, 
which  they  exerted  under  all  circumstances.  Occa- 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  203 

sionally  an  apostrophe  was  measure  of  the  feeling, 
but  always  it  took  the  customary  form,  reflective  of 
stereotyped  comparison.  The  call  to  arms,  the  appeal 
to  patriotism,  could  have  no  worthier  similes  than 
Rome's  greatness  and  Greece's  glory;  the  Battle  of 
New  Orleans  was  fit  subject  for  no  less  a  genius  than 
Homer  or  Ossian  or  Milton.  From  the  standpoint 
of  legal  grasp,  picturesque  and  powerful  by  reason 
of  the  solid  manner  in  which  they  approached  prob 
lems,  these  men  were  original,  but  their  embellishment 
was  laid  on  and  did  not  grow  from  the  material  it 
self.  Troup  was  recognized  for  his  mental  vigor,  not 
for  the  greatness  of  his  intellect.  In  this  respect,  like 
wise,  Calhoun  was  kept  from  becoming  a  statesman 
of  the  first  magnitude. 

The  state  history  in  the  Lower  South  shows  a  pro 
nounced  interest  in  territorial  development  of  re 
sources  ;  Troup's  administration  as  Governor  of  Geor 
gia  was  concerned  with  internal  improvements  which, 
with  the  fine  distinctions  drawn  between  government 
and  sovereignty,  were  necessarily  to  come  in  conflict 
with  the  whole  system  of  national  discrimination.  The 
Federal  authorities  were  not  alive  to  Southern  inter 
ests;  they  did  not  see  the  necessity  for  ably  abetting 
state  activity,  and  the  Southern  people  began  to  grow 
suspicious  that,  as  members  of  a  compact,  they  were 
being  subjected  to  a  vacillating  will.  But  the  men  of 
the  South,  born  to  leadership,  possessed  a  more  iron 
determination ;  wrong  though  they  might  be  in  princi 
ple,  their  ultimate  object  was  prompted  by  no  mean 
motive.  Troup  was  exact,  but,  like  a  true  Southerner, 
he  was  alert  to  the  interest  of  his  section,  since  New 
England  would  have  it  so.  In  his  first  message  of 
1824,  he  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  between  state 
and  nation  the  relations  were  constantly  shifting. 
The  Missouri  Compromise  had  threatened  sovereignty 
as  well  as  slavery. 


204     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

During  these  times,  the  Lower  South  was  concerned 
with  the  Creek  Indians,  who,  in  1802,  owned  nearly 
twenty-six  million  acres  of  Georgia,  which  meant  Ala 
bama  as  well.  The  history  of  the  dividing  line  be 
tween  these  States  would  form  as  interesting  a  chroni 
cle  as  Byrd's  record  of  the  North  Carolina  survey. 
Troup  met  the  situation  with  dignity  and  with  force ; 
the  Northern  papers,  because  of  his  insistence  that 
the  powers  at  Washington  recognize  his  request,  began 
to  speak  of  him  as  the  "  mad  Governor  of  Georgia  " ; 
but  he  was  set  in  purpose  and  above  party  interests 
in  the  accomplishment  of  his  duty.  The  Southerner 
in  his  actions  was  not  ruled  by  personal  interest,  he 
was  not  measured  by  ambitions  which  made  him  neg 
lect  his  duty.  However  much  Calhoun  might  covet 
the  Presidency,  or  Crawford  and  Clay  work  toward 
the  same  goal,  the  Southern  statesman  was  no  politi 
cian  in  the  sense  that  he  would  sell  conviction  for 
position. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  Troup's  determined  stand 
in  the  matter  of  Georgia's  development  pointed  toward 
his  being  a  typical  states'  rights  man ;  unlike  Calhoun 
or  McDuffie  who,  when  they  uttered  decisions  which 
analyzed  the  principles  of  government,  made  their 
utterance  well-nigh  final  in  exposition,  if  not  in  the 
essential  truth  of  the  argument,  Troup's  writing, 
while  determined  and  exact,  was  not  brilliant  and 
terse.  He  left  no  doubt  in  the  minds  of  people,  how 
ever,  that  Georgia  was  independent  and  knew  best 
what  was  most  needed.  His  first  message  forcibly 
denied  the  right  of  "official  intermeddling  of  abolition 
societies";  the  South  alone  understood  the  negro. 
The  voice  of  the  Old  South  was  embarrassed  by  con 
flicting  interests  which  centered  upon  two  set  purposes 
— to  preserve  slavery  and  to  extend  its  boundaries. 
Slave  labor  was  killing  free  labor,  and  state  interest 
invariably  conflicted  with  national  power. 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  205 

This  feeling  grew  with  the  years  and  gained  ad 
herents;  during  1833,  Troup  was  presidential  candi 
date  for  the  States'  Rights  men;  in  1852,  he  was  again 
in  the  arena  under  the  banner  of  the  Southern  Rights 
Party  of  Alabama.  But  call  it  by  any  name  you 
please,  it  was  all  the  same..  Partisan  warfare  was  to 
weaken  the  political  strength  of  the  whole  nation,  how 
ever  much  it  might  strengthen  the  political  sway  of 
Southern  men.  When  slavery  and  states'  rights  ter 
minated  in  secession,  party  warfare  unified  according 
to  sectional  sympathies. 

Unlike  the  great  compromiser,  Clay,  the  voice  of 
the  Old  South  asked  no  half-way  measures ;  the  Gentle 
man  of  the  Black  Stock  foresaw  the  evil  of  playing 
with  edged  tools.  Compromise  would  hardly  gain 
one  his  leadership  in  Congress.  Yet  though  that  was 
the  attitude,  history  shows  that  mainly  through  com 
promise  was  open  disruption  periodically  averted — dis 
ruption  of  New  England  at  one  moment  and  of  the 
South  at  another.  "  If  I  have  not  right  on  my  side," 
was  Governor  Troup's  motto,  "I  will  surrender,  but 
not  compromise." 

The  pioneer  movement  was  southwest  as  well  as 
west.  Charleston  had  a  literary  circle  around  Simms ; 
Augusta  could  boast  of  a  coterie  with  Richard  Henry 
Wilde  as  the  founder;  Mobile  and  New  Orleans  con 
tained  the  color  of  foreign  taste.  The  very  condition 
of  the  planter  afforded  him  the  only  opportunity  of 
being  the  active  member  of  society ;  for  him  the  gov 
ernment  was  worked,  and  rich  and  poor  necessarily 
drifted  apart — a  barrier  of  class  on  one  side  and  of 
color  on  the  other.  A  Georgia  historian  writes: 
"The  estates  had  become  very  large  [by  1812]  and 
the  oneness  of  conditions  had  unified  society,  and 
whether  the  low-country  rice  or  sea-island  planters 
descended  from  the  English,  the  Scotch,  or  the  Hugue 
nots,  they  had  much  the  same  features,  and  formed  a 


206    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

society  of  their  own."  The  yeoman  of  the  Lower 
South  was  born  to  sloth.  But  in  1806,.  the  up-coun 
try  folk  of  South  Carolina  lodged  a  demand  that  their 
presence  be  recognized  as  a  political  factor,  and  the 
State  was  brought  to  acknowledge  their  claims  to 
representation. 

It  was  to  this  middle  class — a  voiceless  unit  in  the 
midst  of  slave  interests — that  such  a  book  as  Helper's 
"  Impending  Crisis  "  was  addressed ;  among  them  were 
to  be  found  the  dissenters,  when  the  fire-eater  blazed 
his  way  through  the  Cotton  Belt. 

The  Dearborn  wagon  with  its  cattle  trail  is  char 
acteristic  of  the  Lower  South  during  all  this  period; 
there  are  Daniel  Boones  and  Davy  Crocketts  of  the 
Southwest  as  well  as  of  Kentucky;  there  are  Sam 
Houstons,  and  Indian  traders  of  the  caliber  of  Alex 
ander  McGillivray,  who  had  business  connections  with 
all  Southern  Indians  from  Mobile  to  Pensacola,  and 
as  representative  of  Panton,  Leslie  &  Co.  (subse 
quently  John  Forbes  &  Co.),  had  influence  sufficient 
to  make  treaties  with  the  Alabamas,  the  Choctaws  and 
the  Chickasaws;  there  were  Mexican  intrigue,  Cuban 
filibustering,  and  Creole  interest  in  the  development  of 
New  Orleans. 

Amidst  such  tendencies,  John  Randolph's  figure 
towered  in  shadow;  here  we  have  the  touch  of  three 
generations.  The  keen-tempered  Virginian  who  rec 
ognized  no  other  sovereign  power  than  his  State,  who 
fought  all  along  the  line,  past-master  of  sarcasm  and 
invective,  crossed  swords  with  Henry,  and  in  his  last 
days  opened  his  vial  of  wrath  upon  Clay  in  unjust 
accusation.  He  opposed  everything  national,  and  was 
always  on  the  qm  vive  to  demand  satisfaction.  Bald 
win,  in  "  Party  Leaders,"  sketches  the  picture 
graphically,  thereby  exemplifying  the  marked  agree- 
ableness  of  his  own  style:  "  It  cannot  be  denied  that, 
at  this  time,  John  Randolph's  merciless  sarcasm  [to- 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  207 

gether  with  the  shaking  of  his  long  forefinger]  was 
the  expression  of  a  general  sentiment ;  that  he  occupied 
the  place  in  politics  assigned  to  Captain  Riley  in  pri 
vate  life,  or  to  Overreach  in  the  characters  of  fiction; 
and  that  sentence  of  virulent  satire,  condensing  the 
venom  of  a  whole  brood  of  cobra  capellos,  '  the  union 
of  the  Puritan  and  the  blackleg,  of  Blifil  and  Black 
George '  [the  form  of  anathema  thrown  by  Randolph 
at  Clay  when  the  latter  was  accused  of  bargaining  with 
Adams  for  the  Presidency],  spoken  as  Junius  would 
have  uttered  it,  conveyed  the  general  sense  at  once 
of  his  conduct  and  his  character.  No  wonder  Clay 
called  the  sardonic  satyr  to  the  field,  and  essayed  the 
keen  marksmanship  of  splitting  a  bullet  on  him;  the 
edge  of  his  shadowy  outline  being  nearly  as  sharp  as 
his  wit" 

Calhoun  represented  the  embodiment  of  an  idea; 
his  logical  powers  were  wonderfully  keen,  but  they 
were  not  sound  in  constructive  progress.  When  he 
was  not  ruled  by  the  demands  of  the  local  institution, 
he  could  be  masterly  in  the  acuteness  of  his  intellect, 
the  same  Calhoun  who,  while  a  student  at  Yale,  en 
gaged  President  Dwight  in  argumentation;  fearless, 
upright,  risking  with  an  iron  grip  that  knew  no  tem 
porizing — such  was  the  force  of  Calhoun.  Apart 
from  slavery,  say  some,  he  is  entitled  to  just  deserts 
as  no  mean  statesman,  but  if  one  look  closely,  it  will 
be  seen  that  to  separate  him  from  slavery  would  be 
to  deprive  Calhoun  of  his  defining  marks;  his  evolu 
tion  typifies  the  effect  of  slavery  upon  a  mind  at  first 
intent  on  the  nation's  interests.  He  was  no  mean 
statesman,  in  spite  of  slavery,  but  it  was  slavery  that 
militated  against  his  ever  becoming  one  of  the  nation's 
greatest  statesmen — that,  together  with  defects  in  edu 
cation. 

Southern  legislation,  as  it  referred  to  slavery,  was 
much  more  aggressive  than  its  application;  the  fight 


208    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

was  principally  an  economic  one,  and  a  social  one  only 
in  so  far  as  it  related  to  the  preservation  of  the  in 
tegrity  of  the  white  race;  there  was  no  personal  ani 
mosity  against  the  black  man  as  such.  Clay,  during 
his  initial  days  in  Kentucky,  where  slavery  existed  in 
small  proportion,  strove  to  abolish  the  institution,  but 
the  sentiment  of  the  agricultural  class  was  against  him. 
The  South  was  intent  on  the  preservation  of  slavery. 

Calhoun  wielded  the  art  of  logic;  Clay  was  the 
genius  of  compromise,  and  cared  little  for  close  rea 
soning;  neither  was  safe,  for  both  worked  within  too 
narrow  limits.  Whenever  the  sonthwestward  trend 
of  slavery  was  impeded,  there  came  threats  from  South 
Carolina;  very  largely,  Calhoun  represented  their  de 
sire,  even  though  he  might  curb  their  impetuosity ; 
they  might  publish  such  papers  as  "  The  Crisis "  in 
the  Charleston  Mercury,  reflective  of  the  Revolution 
ary  broadside,  and  they  might  cry  "Texas  or  Dis 
union,"  but  he  worked  persistently,  occupying  posts 
where,  most  advantageously,  he  might  see  his  inten 
tions  consummated.  His  progression  toward  the  ex 
treme  constitutional  attitude  was  inevitable,  but  he 
was  inconsistent  in  his  steps  away  from  Union  senti 
ment,  and  thereby  representative  of  a  certain  aspect  of 
Southern  mind. 

From  the  standpoint  of  history,  we  must  turn  to 
Calhoun's  speech  of  August  28,  1832,  for  what  Von 
Hoist  calls  "the  classical  exposition  of  the  theory  of 
state  sovereignty";  it  was  his  high-water-mark  ar 
gument.  Thereafter,  his  bold  front  resulted  in  a  series 
of  assertions  of  exceptional  power,  and  as  remark 
able  as  his  essays  analyzing  the  Government  and  the 
Constitution;  throughout,  we  have  fitful  flashes  of  the 
man's  innate  honesty  and  firm  conviction.  At  a  time 
when  he  was  national,  he  might  have  denied  the  ad 
vocacy  of  refined  arguments  on  the  Constitution,  but 
later  this  attitude  was  to  alter.  At  one  moment,  he 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  209 

could  utter  his  theory  of  nullification,  which  grew  out 
of  the  Tariff  of  1828  and  brought  forth  the  defense 
of  the  minority;  at  another  moment,  after  the  nullifi 
cation  sentiment  had  subsided,  he  could  stand  forth 
against  the  spoils  system  under  Jackson,  a  stand  fore 
shadowing  the  Civil  Service  of  to-day,  even  as  Clay, 
by  his  American  system  of  protection,  pointed  the  way 
to  tariff  legislation. 

Clay  and  Calhoun  were  representatives  of  people 
rather  than  of  deep- founded  governmental  principles; 
they  knew  men  rather  than  books ;  they  attracted  con 
stituents  by  the  genius  of  their  manner,  by  the  intent- 
ness  and  direct  earnestness  of  their  attack.  It  is 
claimed  for  Clay  that  he  was  a  compromiser,  because 
by  nature,  in  spite  of  his  support  in  the  War  of  1812, 
during  which  he  narrowly  escaped  service  in  the 
field,  and,  despite  his  record  as  a  duelist,  he  was  a 
peaceable  man,  with  womanly  intuition.  In  establish 
ing  for  Clay  a  position  of  superiority  over  Webster, 
Schurz  asserts  that  the  former  "  possessed  in  a  far 
higher  degree  the  true  oratorical  temperament — that 
force  of  nervous  exaltation  "  which  transforms  the 
orator  into  a  superior  being  arid  impresses  him — 
thought,  passion,  and  will — upon  the  hearts  of  his  lis 
teners.  In  this  respect,  the  orators  of  the  old  regime, 
apart  from  the  historical  import  of  their  views,  were 
creative  artists — speaking  with  almost  a  prophetic 
touch  of  inspiration  that  rises  above  close  analysis, 
and  plays  upon  feeling. 

The  democratic  strength  of  these  leaders  in  the 
party  warfare  of  the  period  was  an  anomaly,  in  view 
of  the  conservative  institution  for  which  they  were 
fighting.  But  their  greatness  was  not  wholly  depend 
ent  upon  a  special  cause ;  there  were  character,  deter 
mination,  large  enthusiasm,  behind  them.  It  was  not 
an  epoch  when  it  was  necessary  to  ask  how  much  do 
you  know,  but  the  man  was  a  popular  figure  when 


210    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

with  deeds  he  could  answer  the  question, — how  much 
can  you  do  ?  Upon  such  a  tide  rose  Andrew  Jackson, 
hero  of  New  Orleans;  with  such  a  victory  behind 
him,  it  mattered  little  whether  he  had  no  literary 
polish.  To  be  a  partisan  leader  one  must  lead,  and 
Jackson,  from  the  battlefield,  with  command  upon  his 
lips,  brought  his  military  methods  into  politics;  his 
mind  was  untutored  but  keen,  not  facile  yet  alert. 
Though  his  writing  was  sadly  wanting  in  correctness, 
it  was  marked  by  terseness.  "  His  faculties  did  not 
sweep  a  large  circle,"  commented  Baldwin,  "  but  they 
worked  like  a  steam-engine  within  that  circle/*  The 
supremacy  of  the  Lower  South  at  Washington  was 
gained  through  unremitting  energy.  The  intensity 
was  of  different  degrees;  the  volume  about  the  same. 
Oratory,  to  have  appeal,  must  have  a  preponderance  of 
common  sense ;  it  must  reach  the  multitude.  Jackson 
and  Clay  were  alike  in  this  respect — the  one  was  a 
popular  idol ;  the  other,  despite  his  personal  shortcom 
ings,  was  loved  by  the  American  people.  Still,  though 
more  is  known  of  these  men  than  of  Calhoun,  the 
latter  will  be  more  distinct  in  the  future,  because  in 
his  person  he  represents  a  large  slice — a  crucial  seg 
ment — of  history,  which  terminated  in  civil  war. 

These  men  came  into  the  national  councils  early  in 
life.  Clay  was  under  the  age  requirement  when  he 
went  to  the  Senate;  he  was  thirty-four  when,  as 
Speaker  of  the  House  in  the  Twelfth  Congress,  he  had 
as  associates,  Lowndes  of  South  Carolina,  who  was 
twenty-nine,  and  Langdon  Cheves  of  South  Carolina, 
who  was  thirty-five.  Though  young  and  prone  to  im 
petuosity,  they  exercised  the  deliberateness  of  mature 
character.  Possibly  the  Revolutionary  tradition  had 
not  yet  been  dimmed ;  Lowndes,  unlike  most  repre 
sentatives  from  his  State,  exhibited  a  calm  courtesy 
that  only  added  surety  to  his  analysis.  He  argued  for 
the  Union,  and  so  did  Calhoun,  but  in  different  ways; 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  211 

he  constructively,  the  other  destructively.  The  South 
erner  was  not  always  headstrong;  he  sometimes  re 
pressed  his  sectional  feeling  for  the  good  of  the  repub 
lic,  though  he  foresaw  that  it  would  react  on  economic 
advance.  As  Clay  realized  the  necessity  for  protec 
tion,  so  Lowndes  drew  aside  from  the  opposition  to 
the  1816  tariff.  Most  of  these  partisan  leaders,  what 
ever  their  attitude — just  so  it  was  strong — usually  re 
ceived  the  presidential  nomination,  which  weakened 
the  character  of  the  general  elections.  They  were  all 
fighting1  over  different  aspects  of  the  same  subject — 
slavery  and  its  extension. 

The  Southern  orator  possessed  seriousness,  but  be 
ing  on  the  defensive,  he  either  sedulously  restrained 
his:  humor,  or  lacked  it  altogether.  Hayne  and  Cal- 
houn  might  both  be  accused  of  an  acute  want  of  such 
saving  grace  in  debate ;  the  former  showed  this  in  cer 
tain  irritation,  the  latter  in  the  precise  punctiliousness 
of  his  manner.  But  their  flow  of  language  made  up 
for  their  want  of  elasticity  of  mind.  William  Pinck- 
ney  was  noted  for  the  clear  structure  of  his  meaning 
while  on  the  floor,  for  the  exact  intent  of  his  words; 
he  never  seemed  to  lack  ideas,  never  appeared  to 
falter.  Lowndes  not  only  was  careful  to  observe 
parliamentary  rules,  but  went  out  of  his  way  to  re-state 
his  opponents'  arguments  with  such  clearness  that 
often  his  hearers  wondered  whether  his  refutation 
could  possibly  be  as  strong.  The  Southern  orators 
were  simple,  almost  na'ive. 

They  were  all  thrown  together  more  or  less  inti 
mately;  their  prestige  gave  them  opportunity  to  ma 
neuver  for  their  particular  needs,  but  not  to  maneuver 
in  a  corrupt  sense.  Their  zeal  sometimes  overstepped 
their  wisdom,  as  when  Wise  contrived  to  assist  Cal- 
houn  to  the  State  Secretaryship  under  Tyler,  for  the 
sake  of  Texas  annexation  and  Mexican  control.  Clay 
first  showed  his  daring  in  his  attitude  toward  the  ac- 


212     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

quiring  of  West  Florida.  Hugh  S.  Legare  was  the 
avowed  classical  devotee  among  these  orators,  though 
Mrs.  Ravenel  claims  that  Trescott  was  "the  most 
perfect  of  Carolinian  writers."  They  may  not  have 
been  flexible  in  style,  but  they  were  ever  ready  in  en 
ergy.  What  Benton  says  of  Crawford  may  truly 
be  said  of  many  of  his  contemporaries, — "  he  ...  ag 
grandized  on  the  approach." 

The  party  leaders  and  the  party  editors  were  the 
figures  of  the  day;  the  latter  had  to  stand  by  their 
editorials  as  strictly  as  a  soldier  by  his  gun.  And 
sometimes  they  fell  in  duel,  as  in  the  case  of  John 
Hampden  Pleasants  (1797-1846)  of  the  Richmond 
Whig,  and  of  William  R.  Taber  of  the  Charleston 
Mercury.  The  Southern  spirit  was  fiery,  made  over 
sensitive  by  being  placed  in  direct  line  for  attack. 

It  is  not  incumbent  upon  us  to  draw  attention  to 
the  individual  richness  of  these  men's  careers.  One 
figure  succeeded  the  other  on  the  platform  in  quick 
succession,  then  returned  to  his  home,  having  run  the 
gamut  of  civic  service,  having  stated  the  South's  in 
tent  in  different  degrees  of  intensity.  In  South  Caro 
lina,  Hayne  rose  upon  the  greatness  of  Judge  Cheves ; 
Petigru  assumed  the  role  that  Hayne  relinquished. 
Then,  after  their  fame  was  established,  they  repaired 
to  whatever  estate  they  owned.  Clay's  "  Ashland " 
became  a  center,  even  as  Jefferson's  "  Monticello " 
was  before  it ;  the  darkness  around  his  weak  habits 
cannot  dim  the  fame  of  Clay's  country  place  outside 
of  Lexington,  Kentucky,  with  its  ample  acres  and  its 
thoroughbreds.  Calhoun's  personal  character,  his 
home  life,  the  attractiveness  of  his  official  residence 
in  Washington,  bespeak  the  charm  of  his  character. 
These  Southerners  of  the  old  regime  were  magnetic ; 
they  dominated  with  a  forceful  courtesy  in  the  pres 
ence  of  women;  they  fired  the  hearts  and  minds 
of  the  younger  generation.  They  were,  as  well,  ex- 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  213 

cellent  sportsmen;  Clay's  race-horses  must  be  offset 
by  John  Randolph's  appearing  as  his  own  jockey  dur 
ing  a  social  contest  in  Charleston. 

A  close  study  of  this  period  will  indicate  the 
South  divided  against  itself;  the  Union  sentiment 
must  not  be  identified  with  that  consolidating  process 
which  resulted  in  Republicanism,  soon  to  become  a 
distinct  war  party.  On  the  other  hand,  the  opposi 
tion  in  the  South  to  "  States'  Rights  politics,"  with  a 
tinge  of  secession  attached,  was  pronounced.  Such  a 
man  as  Petigru  regarded  the  discord  between  sections 
as  a  miserable  condition,  "  odious  to  the  best  men  on 
either  side";  he  laid  the  cause  of  nullification  and  se 
cession  sentiment  to  the  credit  of  barbecue  and  stump 
orators  whose  clamors  were  due  to  "  a  disordered  im 
agination,  or  to  the  fumes  of  a  dinner's  excitement." 
Grayson's  sketch  of  this  man  suggests  the  typical  law 
yer  of  the  period,  in  whom  was  a  strong  tinge  of  liter 
ary  taste  which  was  further  cultivated  by  a  consider 
able  acquaintance  with  books.  Looking  from  his 
office  window  in  Charleston  upon  a  garden  plot  which 
he  himself  had  made,  because  of  his  passion  for  trees 
and  shrubbery,  he  represents  the  conservative  temper 
in  the  South  during  the  actual  throes  of  civil  war. 

One  must  not  forget,  however,  that  the  political 
aspect,  as  measured  by  the  influence  of  party  leaders, 
was  aggravated  by  the  economic  condition  and  by  the 
economic  demand.  Helper's  "  Impending  Crisis  "  did 
not  go  unheeded  in  Congress,  though  the  average 
Southerner  was  more  ready  to  listen  to  the  views  of 
De  Bow.  If  we  take  from  his  arguments  a  certain 
class  hatred,  and  regard  the  matter  sanely,  his  appeal 
to  a  middle-class  citizen,  in  whom  he  recognized  a 
force  which,  with  proper  incentive,  might  arrest  the 
domination  of  the  slavocracy,  is  certainly  not  so  very 
false.  Olmsted  by  his  writing  gives,  as  we  have  here 
tofore  noted,  a  faint  view  of  Southern  population 


2i4    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

apart  from  the  slave-holding1  class ;  in  the  voiceless 
South,  in  the  middle  class,  Helper  saw  the  seeds  of 
future  solution. 

Heated  discussion  generally  produces  humorous  as 
sertion  ;  even  truth  may  be  cartooned  by  over-statement 
and  over-coloring.  Helper  vies  with  Jaques'  "  Seven 
Ages  of  Man,"  in  his  picture  of  Slave  State  depend 
ence  upon  the  staple  products  of  Free  State  labor;  he 
writes: 

"In  infancy  we  are  swaddled  in  Northern  muslin; 
in  childhood  we  are  humored  with  Northern  gew 
gaws;  in  youth  we  are  instructed  out  of  Northern 
books;  at  the  age  of  maturity  we  sow  our  *  wild  oats' 
on  Northern  soil ;  in  middle  life  we  exhaust  our  wealth, 
our  energies,  and  talents  in  the  dishonorable  vocation 
of  entailing  our  dependence  on  our  children  and  on 
our  children's  children,  and,  to  the  neglect  of  our  own 
interests  and  the  interests  of  those  around  us,  in  giv 
ing  aid  and  succor  to  every  department  of  Northern 
power;  in  the  decline  of  life  we  remedy  our  eye-sight 
with  Northern  spectacles,  and  support  our  infirmities 
with  Northern  canes ;  in  old  age  we  are  drugged  with 
Northern  physic;  and,  finally,  when  we  die,  our  in 
animate  bodies,  shrouded  in  Northern  cambric,  are 
stretched  upon  the  bier,  borne  to  the  grave  in  a  North 
ern  carriage,  entombed  with  a  Northern  spade,  and 
memorialized  with  a  Northern  slab!  " 

Reduced  to  its  barest  arguments,  Helper's  conviction 
was  that  slavery  was  not  only  expensive  but  unprofit 
able,  that  the  South  was  in  need  of  manufactures, 
and  that  the  much-flaunted  prowess  in  agriculture 
was  not  great;  that  the  non-slaveholder  had  no  right 
to  be  quiescent  while  a  limited  class  governed  the  sec 
tion  for  its  own  interests ;  that  the  South  should  wake 
up  to  the  industrial  condition  which  realized  only  a 
small  profit  on  large  investments.  We  will  not  go 
into  his  discussion  of  the  methods  by  which  slavery 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD 

might  have  been  abolished ;  conditions  were  such  that 
had  the  Southern  mind  universally  been  prepared  for 
it,  and  had  the  labor  problem  been  thoughtfully  sys 
tematized,  a  time  might  have  arrived  when  the  black 
man  would  have  gained  his  freedom  through  evolu 
tion  rather  than  through  revolution.  The  pseudo- 
sentiment  of  Washington,  Jefferson,  Henry  and  such 
slaveholders,  regarding  abolition,  could  not  have 
brought  any  far-reaching  results.  But  the  whole 
cause  of  the  inanition  which  marked  the  middle-class 
population  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the  voice  of  the 
Old  South  made  no  direct  appeal  to  them.  C.  C.  Clay 
of  Alabama  deplored  the  tendency  to  drive  the  in 
dustrious  freeman  away  from  the  state  before  the 
southwestward  sweep  of  the  rice-planter;  he  referred 
to  the  danger  of  land  exhaustion,  which  always  follows 
a  one-class  interest.  Henry  A.  Wise  of  Virginia, 
pointing  his  finger  at  the  Southern  sedge  patches  which 
outshone  the  sun,  cried  against  the  domination  of 
slavocracy.  While  he  was  running  for  Governor,  just 
before  the  war,  he  exclaimed : 

"  Commerce  has  long  ago  spread  her  sails,  and  sailed 
away  from  you.  You  have  not,  as  yet,  dug  more  than 
coal  enough  to  warm  yourselves  at  your  own  hearths ; 
you  have  set  no  tilt-hammer  of  Vulcan  to  strike  blows 
worthy  of  gods  in  your  iron-foundries;  you  have  not 
spun  more  than  coarse  cotton  enough,  in  the  way  of 
manufactures,  to  clothe  your  own  slaves." 

This  then  was  another  voice  of  the  Old  South  which 
had  in  it  the  ring  of  the  New.  Helper  was  right  after 
a  passionate  fashion,  but  his  remedy  was  aggressive. 
His  book  was  met  by  a  characteristic  rejoinder;  he 
was  answered,  "  dissected,"  in  a  treatise  of  equal  con 
tempt  and  accusation.  But  anger  is  not  argument, 
though  the  point  of  view  is  reflective  of  a  certain  tem 
per  in  the  South.  Lamar  might  offset  Wise  in  the 
support  of  slavery,  and  Helper's  suggestions  for  aboli- 


216    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

tion  might  be  counterbalanced  by  eleven  Biblical  sanc 
tions  for  slavery,*  but  the  South  at  large  was  hardly 
affected  by  such  appeal. 

Pro-slavery  arguments  were  philosophically  stated 
by  Harper,  Hammond,  Simms,  Bledsoe,  and  Dew; 
their  voices  were  lifted  in  answer  to  the  sentiment 
against  the  institution ;  Dew,  with  all  the  knowledge  of 
history,  metaphysics  and  political  law  that  his  post  at 
William  and  Mary  College  afforded  him,  took  stand  in 
opposition  to  the  strong  feeling  actuating  the  Virginia 
legislature,  when  it  debated  the  abolition  problem  dur 
ing  1831-32.  The  arguments  of  these  men  for  the 
preservation  of  the  slave  were  far  more  puerile  than 
their  arguments  against  abolition ;  it  might  seem  that 
the  latter  would  satisfy  the  former,  but  the  want  of 
compensation  is  excellent  indication  that  the  South 
knew  of  no  other  way  than  slavery  to  hold  the  black 
man  in  check,  and  naturally  feared  his  freedom,  while 
the  North  wanted  the  freedom,  unthinking  as  to  what 
the  result  might  be  without  economic  and  social  prep 
aration.  For  emancipation  and  political  suffrage 
and  abolition  sentiment  resulted  in  all  the  evils  of  the 
reconstruction  period. 

The  whole  structure  of  Southern  society  was  regu 
lated  by  the  demands  of  cotton,  and  its  dependence 
upon  slave  labor ;  as  the  author  of  "  Cotton  is  King  " 
asserted,  in  answer  to  his  critics,  the  two  factors  were 
not  indivisible ;  he  did  not  claim  "  that  free  labor  is 
incapable  of  producing  cotton,  but  that  it  does  not 
produce  it  so  as  to  affect  the  interests  of  slave  labor." 
He  stood  upon  clear  ground  in  the  claim  that  so  far 
abolition,  and  the  efforts  toward  colonization,  had 
failed  to  solve  the  problem,  and  that  so  far  conditions 

*  See,  for  example:  Levit.  xxv.44;  Rom.  1.29;  Gal.  V.IQ;  I 
Cor.  v.n;  i  Cor.  vi.o.;  2  Tim.  iii.2;  i  Cor.  vii.22;  Gal.  vi.i7: 
Matt  xv.ip;  i  Tim.  i.p;  Mark  vii.2i ;  Eph.  v.5;  Col.  iii.8;  Rev. 
xxi.8;  Rev.  xxii.15;  2  Peter  i.i;  Jude  i. 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  217 

of  poverty  in  the  North  were  harder  than  conditions 
of  slavery  in  the  South. 

Thus,  in  brief  epitome,  we  have  sketched  the  at 
mosphere  in  which  the  voice  of  the  Old  South  was 
cultivated;  mentally  it  was  not  conducive  to  varied 
thinking,  and  socially  it  did  not  encourage  independ 
ent  thinking.  But  the  full-length  portrait  of  the  orator 
is  one  of  tremendous  color,  of  solid  frame ;  even  in 
the  shadow  of  perspective  view,  it  retains  its  nobility 
of  pose.  Upon  his  face  are  marked  the  firm  lines  of 
command,  of  conviction,  of  set  purpose ;  within  his 
eyes  shine  beneficence,  kindliness,  intelligence,  deep 
sentiment,  humor.  His  pose  is  stately  and  is  measure 
of  his  solid  stand  in  life ;  it  is  essentially  one  of  action 
prompted  by  intellectual  impetus.  His  head  is  raised 
fearlessly,  not  in  defiance  of  law,  but  in  determination 
and  in  spirited  enthusiasm.  The  portrait  is  an  old 
master  of  a  human  sort;  no  study  of  technique  may 
emulate  it.  The  countenance  shines  from  the  limbo 
of  dead  issues,  and  what  we  cherish  is  the  type  of 
manhood  that  rose  above,  though  still  a  part  of,  the 
Old  Regime. 


CHAPTER    IX 
LOCAL  SENSE  AND  NATIVE  HUMOR 


IN  his  essay  on  "The  Want  of  a  History,"  Mr. 
Page  deplores  the  lack  of  a  full  record  of  the  South 
ern  people,  in  which  the  truth  is  spoken  fearlessly — 
the  measure  of  their  activity  in  the  light  of  unbiased 
fact  This  plea  of  his  was  written  some  years  ago, 
before  critics  within  the  South  became  imbued  with 
the  necessity  for  self-examination  and  for  the  cor 
rection  or  modification  of  their  institutions  in  the  light 
of  the  future  and  in  the  experience  of  the  past.  The 
historical  viewpoint  in  the  South  to-day  is  broad,  is 
national  ;  out  of  it  has  come  such  a  philosophical 
grasp  of  the  situation  as  Mr.  Murphy  displays  in  his 
book  on  "The  Basis  of  Ascendency,"  and  as  Mr. 
Brown  exhibits  in  his  volume  on  "  The  Lower  South 
in  American  History."  Inclusiveness  is  not  the  all- 
essential  need  in  our  "want  of  a  history,"  but  in- 
cisiveness  is  more  necessary  ;  it  is  this  point  that  shall 
be  taken  up  in  a  discussion  of  the  development  of  the 
Historic  Sense  in  the  South. 

As  a  means  of  associating  names  with  the  periods 
in  which  their  views  were  formulated  as  well  as 
effected,  we  are  safe  in  identifying  the  historian  of  this 
ante-bellum  era  with  the  writer  whose  local  sense  was 
more  developed  along  the  line  of  picturesque  narrative 
and  easy  record,  than  in  the  spirit  of  constructive  rea 
soning  and  criticism.  C.  C.  Jones  was  identified 
with  Georgia,  Albert  J.  Pickett  with  Alabama,  C.  E. 
A.  Gayarre  with  Louisiana,  especially  in  his  defense 

218 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  219 

of  the  Creoles  against  Mr.  Cable.  When  the  mind  of 
the  South  was  concerned  analytically,  it  was  con 
cerned  polemically  and  was  on  the  defensive;  the  his 
torians  dared  not  be  as  energetic  as  the  politicians; 
the  statesmen  were  concerned  with  development,  but 
soon  found  themselves  pledged  to  special  interests ; 
they  ceased  to  see  with  the  sweeping  vision  of  the 
founders;  political  maneuvering  was  the  game.  The 
historian  became  a  partisan  on  one  hand,  a  romancer 
on  the  other.  The  province  of  the  historic  view  was 
not  clearly  defined.  The  colonial  author  kept  a  rec 
ord  based  upon  observation;  his  text  smacked  of  ad 
venture  because  his  life  was  adventure  and  the  environ 
ment  was  new.  The  ante-bellum  author,  still  in  a 
sense  the  pioneer,  had  traditions  to  respect  and  institu 
tions  to  preserve ;  his  intellectual  connection  with  Eu 
rope  was  of  the  seventeenth  century ;  he  could  not  say 
how  far  contemporary  Europe  affected  him.  In  that 
direction,  he  knew  that  the  South  hoped  to  gain  the 
sympathy  of  England  through  commercial  relationship 
rather  than  through  moral  suasion,  through  kinship 
and  similar  traditions  rather  than  through  similar 
views  on  the  slave  question. 

Because  of  a  vague  notion  of  history  as  a  social 
evolution, — because,  more  than  in  any  other  section, 
the  vision  was  close  to  the  condition  which  formed 
the  materials  of  history,  the  historian  turned  to  the 
past  with  the  romancer's  zest;  from  the  invaluable 
data  he  gathered  comes  the  knowledge  we  have  of  the 
social  life  of  the  period — sometimes  they  are  first 
hand  gatherings,  otherwise  traditions  passed  down 
through  generations.  The  historian  and  the  roman 
cer  knew  their  ground;  the  topographical  knowl 
edge  was  minute;  it  was  used  in  the  spirit  of  attach 
ment. 

This  leads  us  to  the  statement  that  Southern  fic 
tion  was  in  large  proportion  Southern  history; 


220    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

Gayarre  was  criticised  for  being  too  much  of  the  ro 
mancer,  while  Simms  and  Kennedy  and  Tucker  were 
often  too  much  of  the  historian.  Perhaps  this  was 
because,  as  was  characteristic  of  most  writers  in  the 
South,  they  attempted  every  form  of  literature. 
Gayarre  was  not  only  a  novelist  but  a  dramatist  as 
well.  Yet  despite  a  certain  tendency  of  these  writers 
to  fall  into  philosophy  on  one  hand  and  romance  on 
the  other,  it  is  surprising-  to  find  them  imbued  with 
a  high  standard  of  research.  The  establishment  of 
state  historical  societies  in  the  South  has  counter 
acted  the  indifference  once  found  as  regards  the  pres 
ervation  of  documents,  but  the  modern  methods  of 
scholarship  will  not  succeed  any  more  fully  than  these 
in  preserving  the  true  spirit  of  the  civilization.  They 
were  men  of  the  old  order,  given  to  high  conviction 
in  political  doctrine,  and,  as  Dr.  Alderman  so  gra 
ciously  asserts,  this  genius  for  intensity  of  conviction 
often  compensates  in  one  way  for  a  loss  in  liberalism. 
"They  become  idealists,"  he  writes,  "possibly  mar 
tyrs  to  an  idea.  ...  It  is  plain  to  me  that  by  the 
very  tragedy  of  its  history,  the  South  is  the  most 
idealistic  section  in  America  to-day  [1903].  .  .  . 
No  other  people  except  the  French  will  as  quickly 
rally  around  a  phrase,  or  a  doctrine,  or  a  song, 
or  an  attractive  personality  like  the  American  of 
those  Southern  States."  The  great  difference  be 
tween  the  ante-bellum  historian  and  the  critic  within 
the  South  to-day  rests  in  the  application  of  that  ideal 
ism  to  problems  immediately  before  the  South  and  as 
affecting  the  entire  nation.  Neither  Mr.  Murphy 
nor  Mr.  Brown  nor  J.  L.  M.  Curry  could  be  accused 
of  a  lack  of  the  historic  sense;  their  attempts,  eco 
nomic,  social  and  intellectual,  have  all  been  along  the 
line  of  broad,  national  significance,  but  they  wisely 
insist  that  the  historian  of  a  civilization,  so  peculiar  as 
that  in  the  South  of  the  past,  may  not  judge  in  aloof- 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  221 

ness,  however  deep,  minute  and  accurate  his  scholar 
ship. 

The  weight  of  the  old-time  Southern  reviews  is 
indicative  of  the  tendency  of  the  Southern  writer  to 
speculate  on  the  past,  and  to  draw  from  the  past  only 
that  which  would  suffice  to  support  his  present  belief; 
essays  were  written  in  grand  style  and  in  aristocratic 
indifference  to  popular  appeal.  To  be  a  contributor 
to  the  Southern  Review  was  sufficient  guarantee  of 
excellence  in  belles  lettres;  but  though  many  of 
these  men  of  the  South  possessed  the  scholar's  fervor, 
they  were  limited  in  research  by  their  social  restric 
tions.  It  was  called  erudition  in  those  days ;  men  had 
a  passion  for  ancient  learning,  and  Legare,  with  his 
marvelous  range  of  reading,  his  natural  bent  for  lan 
guages,  his  over-education  which  detracted  somewhat 
from  his  popularity,  had  a  literary  style  which  was 
oppressive.  He  was  the  classicist  among  the  Charles 
ton  legal  profession,  and  his  wit  in  conversation,  his 
pungency  in  apt  illustration,  made  him  agreeable  com 
pany;  in  intellect,  people  called  him  the  compeer  of 
Professor  Thomas  Cooper.  In  a  city  where  there 
were  marked  pretensions  to  literary  supremacy,  Legare 
had  no  rival,  unless  we  consider  Crafts  as  such;  they 
both  were  impediments  in  the  advance  of  Simms, 
who  smarted  under  the  aristocratic  opposition  shown 
toward  him. 

la  view  of  this  rivalry,  Legare' s  opinion  of  Crafts 
is  all  the  more  rilled  with  meaning,  though  his  irri 
tation  is  none  the  less  partly  justifiable;  for  Crafts 
played  high  in  the  hope  of  gaining  reputation.  As 
sound  character  went  in  those  days,  no  one  thought 
of  producing  effect  superficially  ;  there  was  a  genius 
in  the  mere  attitude  of  men.  Legare  himself,  early 
stricken  with  disease  that  distorted  his  figure,  rose 
above  it  through  possession  of  fluency  of  speech  and 
easy  gesture  and  close  logic  of  debate. 


222     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

He^was  conscientious  and  thorough  ;  when  he  went 
to  Brussels  as  United  States  Minister,  his  official 
correspondence  was  painstaking,  but  everywhere  he 
moved,  Legare  was  aloof,  retiring.  His  journals  are 
measure  of  the  man  ;  they  are  not  lightened  with  any 
sprightliness  of  description,  but  show  the  care  of  the 
close  observer;  comments  on  society  are  made  with  a 
shyness  that  betokens  distaste  for  such  an  existence. 
His  biographer  notes  that  after  passing  the  bar  and  at 
tending  Edinburgh  University,  and  after  remaining 
abroad  for  two  years,  Legare  returned  to  Charleston 
no  "  traveled  exquisite."  His  diary  of  1833  is  inter 
spersed  with  classical  quotation ;  he  fluctuated  easily 
between  the  Spanish  of  "  Gil  Bias  "  and  the  "  Philoso 
phic  du  Droit  "  within  an  afternoon's  reading,  but 
his  foreign  surroundings  drew  from  him  no  graphic 
account  and  no  deep  personal  concern,  despite  the  fact 
that  he  was  constantly  in  the  midst  of  the  most  noted 
gatherings. 

The  literature  of  Legare's  record  suggests  by  con 
trast  the  sprightliness  of  Mme.  Octavia  Walton  Le 
Vert  (1810-1870),  of  Mobile,  who  traveled  abroad 
in  1853  and  1855  ;  she  was  gifted  with  a  little  more 
than  the  tourist's  appreciation,  but  her  response  to 
external  conditions  was  typically  feminine,  excelling 
in  the  small  knowledge  that  betokens  an  active  intel 
lect,  if  not  a  distinctive  one.  Were  it  not  for  the  per 
sonal  flavor  which  mingled  old-world  impressions 
with  social  descriptions,  the  account  would  be  nothing 
more  than  a  guide  book,  but  Madame  Le  Vert  car 
ried  influential  introductions  with  her  which  placed 
her  in  high  circles,  and  her  impressions  of  Queen 
Victoria  and  the  Court  possess  distinctive  color,  though 
they  do  not  contain  the  excellent  weight  of  Madame 
de  Genlis's  Journals. 

Mingled  with  her  varied  impressions,  one  notes  the 
constant   reference   to   American   statesmen    in   com- 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  223 

parison  with  European  diplomats.  Madame  Le  Vert, 
like  Mrs.  Clopton,  who  was  formerly  the  wife  of 
Senator  C.  C.  Clay  of  Alabama,  enjoyed  popularity 
in  Washington  when  Calhoun,  Webster,  and  Clay 
held  the  Senate  in  thrall;  there  is  no  vital  perma 
nence  to  her  expression ;  her  feeling  gave  only  momen 
tary  weight  to  her  adjectives,  and  her  friendships 
moved  her  to  plethoric  enthusiasms.  She  is  the  casual 
though  quickly  appreciative  observer. 

Yet  in  an  easy  manner,  she  could  mount  to  pas 
sages  of  facile  grace  and  vividness.  Her  gondola 
apostrophe  in  Italy  where  Byron's  poetry  held  her 
appreciation,  her  contrast  of  Italian  rice  fields  with 
Southern  scenes  and  the  dirt-eater,  her  witness  of 
Cuban  bullfights,  her  isolated  descriptions  of  foreign 
women,  of  the  theater,  and  especially  of  the  Spanish 
Passion  Play,  are  not  dull  reading.  The  large  fault 
in  her  writing  is  the  over-domination  of  vivacious 
personality  and  the  absence  of  any  coherent  atmos 
phere  and  perspective.  These  latter  qualities,  so  rare 
in  "  Impressions,"  are  the  distinguishing  marks  of 
Fanny  Kemble's  "  Journal  of  a  Resident  on  a  Georgia 
Plantation,"  and  of  Tyrone  Power's  travels  in 
America  during  1833/34,  '35. 

Nevertheless,  to  omit  the  name  of  Madame  Le  Vert 
from  a  narrative  of  Southern  literature  would  be  to 
neglect  a  distinguishing  mark  of  Mobile  society,  where 
she  held  high  position  socially,  as  her  husband  did 
professionally  as  a  physician.  The  historian  may  not 
have  lost  much  by  the  failure,  on  the  part  of  the  Le 
Vert  family,  to  publish  her  sketches  of  the  men  in 
the  nation's  capital  at  the  time  she  could  boast  of  the 
firm  regard  of  Mr.  Clay,  but  Madame  Le  Vert's 
quick  observation  would  have  produced  valuable  social 
color  in  small  matters.  She  had  a  certain  provincial 
point  of  view,  but  in  intellect  she  was  sufficiently  inde 
pendent,  and  in  spirit  she  was  full  of  kindliness; 


224    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

she  did  not  aspire  to  authorship,  but  was  encouraged 
therein  by  that  species  of  admiring  friend  which  is 
responsible  for  a  great  part  of  the  mediocre  literature 
in  the  South. 

Literary  activity  in  the  varied  professions  was  not 
wanting  in  the  South  ;  the  scientific  mind  cannot  be 
chained  to  locality,  though  one  speaks  of  the  Charles 
ton  botanist,  Stephen  Elliott,  whose  son  became  fa 
mous  as  Bishop  of  Georgia,  and  of  the  Le  Contes, 
identified  with  South  Carolina  College.  From  the 
South,  Audubon  grew  into  wide  prominence,  after  the 
manner  of  Washington  Allston,  while  Dr.  J.  Marion 
Simms  of  South  Carolina  and  Alabama  left  in  his 
agreeable  narrative,  "  The  Story  of  My  Life,"  an 
account  of  his  distinctive  professional  advance  in  New 
York  and  abroad. 

While  it  is  hard  to  measure  scientific  activity  in 
terms  of  sectional  influence,  one  is  able,  in  the  case 
of  Lieut.  Matthew  Fontaine  Maury  (1806-1873),  to 
lay  stress  upon  the  Southern  interest  exhibited  by  him 
in  the  application  of  science  to  sectional  improvement. 
He  was  thoroughly  practical  in  the  use  of  dry  mate 
rial,  due  no  doubt  to  an  imaginative  power  which 
added  great  attractiveness  to  his  style  as  it  did  to 
that  of  Huxley.  His  physical  and  geographical  ex 
aminations  were  brought  to  bear  upon  Southern  ad 
vancement,  and  he  was  constant  in  his  plea  for  navy- 
yards  in  the  South  as  a  protection  to  Southern  har 
bors.  Agriculture  and  commerce  were  carefully 
watched  by  him,  and  to  the  farmers  of  Alabama  he 
outlined  a  system  of  weather  reports  which  was  later 
carried  into  effect.  His  brilliant  mind  received  rec 
ognition  everywhere,  and  honors  were  offered  him 
from  abroad ;  but  he  had  his  personal  difficulties, 
even  coming  into  conflict  with  the  Navy  Board,  which 
retired  him  without  just  cause;  the  decision  was  later 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  225 

set  aside  by  Congress,  and  Maury  was  made  a  com 
mander. 

As  a  scientist  in  a  limited  sense,  Maury's  outlook 
was  broad,  and  his  activity  many-sided;  he  was  con 
cerned  in  the  laying  of  the  cable  ;  he  often  advocated 
the  building  of  a  canal  across  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  ; 
and  he  was  also  of  an  inventive  turn.  His  life, 
marked  by  his  exceptional  capacity  for  application, 
was  likewise  graced  with  a  charm  wholly  personal. 
Maury's  sense  of  humor  was  keen,  his  literary  taste 
pronounced  ;  he  was  not  aloof  ;  even  his  written 
technical  matter  was  submitted  to  criticism  in  family 
conclave.  His  science  only  served  to  show  him  a 
clearer  view  of  progress  in  all  channels  of  human 
need ;  coupled  with  his  close  knowledge  of  the  Bible, 
he  also  recognized  fully  the  harmony  which  existed 
"  between  science  and  revealed  religion."  In  his  home 
life  he  was  typically  Southern,  in  his  public  life  he 
was  earnest  and  firm.  Weak  men  would  have  suc 
cumbed  to  the  flattery  which  was  heaped  upon  Maury 
by  Russia,  France  and  England.  He  entered  the 
Confederate  Army  and  went  abroad  in  the  interests 
of  his  section,  but  he  was  a  man  of  peace,  and  tried 
to,  hasten  the  cessation  of  conflict.  Through  it  all, 
his  practical  vein  was  uppermost,  though  he  had  many 
dreams  which  marked  him  as  an  idealist — dreams 
that  stretched  to  Mexico  and  to  the  borders  of  the 
Amazon.  Praised  by  Humboldt,  he  was  honored  by 
the  Royal  Geographical  Society  of  England,  and 
given  an  LL.  D.  by  Cambridge,  with  Tennyson  and 
Max  Miiller.  The  South  knew  his  worth,  and  in 
1868  Sewanee  offered  him  a  post.  In  the  South  he 
was  a  figure  of  large  proportions,  but,  save  in  the 
strength  of  his  manhood,  he  was  an  unusual  type. 
His  family  connections,  however,  afford  a  rare  oppor 
tunity  of  tracing  the  rich  strain  of  Huguenot  blood, 


226    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

seen  in  such  a  book  as  Ann  Maury's  "  Memories  of 
a  Huguenot  Family/' 

Among  the  ministers,  a  strong  sense  of  locality  de 
veloped  along  the  line  of  their  sectarian  interests. 
Religion  and  science  were  not  on  friendly  terms  in 
the  South,  and  the  former  was  as  much  an  obstacle 
in  the  way  of  physical  research,  as  slavery  was  in 
the  way  of  social  investigation.  James  Woodrow, 
teacher  of  Science  in  the  Presbyterian  institution, 
Oglethorpe  University  of  Georgia,  suffered  condem 
nation  by  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Church  because, 
though  still  professing  Christianity,  he  dared  adhere 
to  the  theory  of  evolution.  Woodrow  was  not  of  the 
South,  but  his  example  serves  to  illustrate  another 
handicap  to  mental  progress.  His  influence  on 
Lanier  was  great. 

Under  the  impetus  of  denominational  pride,  the 
minister  became,  in  an  indirect  way,  a  local  historian 
of  somo  scope.  Bishop  Hawks  (1798-1866),  whose 
reputation  stretched  from  Mississippi  to  New  York, 
was  the  author  of  invaluable  records  of  ecclesiastical 
history  in  Maryland  and  Virginia,  besides  being 
founder  of  the  New  York  Review,  to  which  Poe  and 
Legare  were  contributors;  Bishop  Meade  (1789- 
1862)  left  behind  him  a  suggestive  compilation,  "Old 
Churches,  Ministers  and  Families  of  Virginia."  When 
civil  war  was  declared,  the  former,  though  opposed 
to  slavery,  returned  to  his  section — much  to  the  regret 
of  his  Northern  admirers, — while  the  latter,  in  the  de 
bates  preceding  the  struggle,  was  involved  on  the  side 
of  slavery.  It  is  useless  to  add  much  more  to  this 
type  of  literature  ;  biographical  data  and  incident 
form  their  chief  value.  The  Virginia  Baptists,  im 
mortalized  by  Semple,  were  counterbalanced  by  the 
Mctlmdists  in  P>ish<>p  Fitzgerald's  book;  the  Epis 
copal  Church  in  Virginia  was  not  more  important  in 
the  eyes  of  Dr.  Frederick  Dalcho  than  the  Episcopal 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  227 

Church  in  South  Carolina.  Religion  was  not  only 
denominational  but  local — history  prescribed.  It  was 
the  active  and  intimate  intercourse  of  the  men  of 
each  State  among-  themselves,  their  similar  training, 
habits,  and  practical  interests,  that  drew  them  to 
gether  ;  though  endowed  with  characteristics  typical  of 
the  South  generally,  their  civic  bearing  and  duty  gave 
them  differences  in  political  temper,  for  example,  no 
where  better  seen  than  when  the  Southern  senators 
withdrew  from  the  Senate  Chamber  on  the  eve  of  the 
Civil  War.  Viewed  in  this  light,  as  well  as  valued 
for  their  biographical  convenience,  such  volumes  as 
Reuben-  Davis's  "  Recollections  of  Mississippi  and 
Mississippians,"  and  Miller's  "Bench  and  Bar  of 
Georgia  "  have  significance. 

The  historian  has  only  indirectly  touched  upon  the 
influence  of  New  England  on  the  Southern  mind. 
Von  Hoist  suggests  the  effect  upon  Calhoun  at  the 
outset  of  his  political  career.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  position  occupied  in  Kentucky  by  George  D. 
Prentice,  with  his  Northern  training  and  his  Whig 
sympathies,  opens  a  rich  field  for  the  consideration 
of  those  deep  social  workings  which  have  effect  upon 
the  general  temper  of  the  state.  Prentice  went  South 
on  a  political  mission — to  write  for  his  party  a  life 
of  Clay  which  would  serve  as  a  partisan  pamphlet. 
He  had  hardly  completed  his  task  when  he  set  in 
motion  the  Louisville  Journal;  through  this  me 
dium,  from  1840-1860,  he  wielded  powerful  influence 
for  the  Whigs  in  the  South  and  Southwest,  thus  show 
ing  determined  opposition  to  Jacksonian  Democ 
racy.  Prentice  had  been  editor  before  this  and  had 
exemplified  how  well  he  could  make  the  New  Eng 
land  Review  serve  as  a  political  organ  and  as  a  liter 
ary  influence.  Indeed,  one  of  his  biographers  says 
with  truth  that  this  first  venture  was  "  the  Louis 
ville  Journal  born  in  Connecticut." 


228    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

Prentice's  life  was  a  peculiarly  constituted  one; 
we  might  designate  him  as  the  lonely  man ;  for  even 
during  the  life-time  of  his  wife  and  sons,  he  found 
himself  separated  from  them  with  regard  to  Southern 
sympathy.  For  Prentice  was  in  ardent  opposition 
to  the  war,  and  often  visited  Washington  in  the  cause 
of  the  Union,  while  his  son  met  death  in  the  Con 
federate  ranks.  One  sees,  in  the  volume  of  poems 
which  Prentice  left,  the  soft  side  of  his  nature  which 
might  be  entirely  lost  by  judging  of  the  man  through 
his  pointed  views,  paper  paragraphs  and  epigrams. 
But  in  those  poems,  it  is  clearly  evident  that  locality 
had  in  turn  its  influence  upon  the  New  England  tem 
per  ;  as  serious  art  efforts,  the  verses  may  not  have 
been  highly  valued  by  Prentice;  Col.  Watterson  notes 
that  he  treated  them  lightly.  Nevertheless,  they  bear 
many  of  the  distinguishing  defects  of  Southern  poetry. 

In  his  memorial  address  before  the  Kentucky  leg 
islature  (1870),  Col.  Watterson  called  attention  to 
Prentice's  chief  claim  to  distinction  in  the  South. 
Like  Greeley  in  the  North,  he  was  one  of  the  last  ex 
ponents  of  "  personal  journalism,"  where  news  was 
made  subservient  to  the  personality  of  the  editor. 
Undoubtedly,  it  was  Prentice's  distinctive  style  which 
saved  him  in  the  untutored  country  of  Kentucky  on 
his  arrival.  Yankees  were  not  graciously  considered, 
and  men  settled  differences  of  opinion  with  the  gun. 
Bullets  had  no  deterring  effect  on  Prentice;  he  dis 
approved  of  dueling  and  said  so  fearlessly  in  print, 
but  still  his  brilliant  wit,  his  sarcastic  thrusts,  his 
quick  utilization  of  the  moment  went  on. 

His  paper  was  opposed  by  Shadrach  Penn,  of  the 
Democratic  party,  who  edited  the  Louisville  Adver 
tiser  ;  for  twelve  years,  these  two  men  bandied  words, 
and  whatever  Penn  wrote  in  his  paragraph  column 
was  certain  to  come  back  on  him  threefold,  with 
boomerang  results.  Finally  Penn  quitted  the  state, 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  229 

not  however,  without  the  good-will  of  Prentice,  who 
won  for  himself  a  distinguished  place  in  Louisville. 
In  1859,  he  printed  "  Prenticeana "  with  some  mis 
givings.  Wit  loses  its  freshness  when  detached  from 
the  occasion  giving  it  birth,  and  Prentice's  wit  was  not 
entirely  removed  from  a  personal  liking  for  many  of 
the  figures  he  lampooned;  but  his  humor  was  more 
general  and  fraught  with  more  character  than  the 
ordinary  newspaper  paragraph.  Despite  the  fact  that 
his  points  were  dependent  upon  what  he  called  "par 
tisan  partiality,"  Prentice,  like  Lamb,  had  rich  com 
prehension  of  the  rare  use  of  wit. 

As  a  writer,  he  was  rapid  and  continuously  busy, 
keeping  up  a  constant  flow  and  retaining  a  surprising 
balance.  He  prepared  large  quantities  of  matter,  as 
the  mood  prompted  him;  on  the  other  hand,  he  looked 
elsewhere  for  notable  literary  contributions,  and  the 
Journal  columns  contained  the  names  of  Whittier, 
James  Freeman  Clarke,  John  Howard  Payne,  Mrs. 
L.  H.  Sigourney,  Mrs.  Amelia  Welby,  Alice  and 
Phoebe  Gary,  and  W.  D.  Howells.  This  distin 
guished  tone  was  retained  by  Col.  Watterson,  who 
succeeded  Prentice,  and  who,  despite  the  fact  that 
the  "  personal  journalism  "  had  been  superseded  by 
the  modern  machinery  of  news-gathering,  continued 
to  stamp  the  editorial  page  with  character,  though  its 
political  influence  waned. 

Whatever  the  mental  activity,  the  pioneer  local  sense 
is  uppermost;  history  is  permeated  with  it  in  the  ad 
venturous  record  of  David  Crockett,  and  in  the  evolu 
tion  of  Texas  as  followed  in  the  career  of  Sam  Hous 
ton.  In  the  Lower  South,  aristocratic  traditions, 
brought  into  a  free  atmosphere,  reacted  upon  crude 
environment  in  a  genial  manner,  and  the  social  status 
afforded  rich  material  for  a  group  of  humorists  who 
painted  the  scenes  with  no  mean  skill,  using  a  species 
of  fiction  which  was  not  very  far  removed  from  fact. 


230    THE   LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

It  was  a  humor  based  wholly  upon  a  full  realization  of 
locality;  it  was  the  sane  element  in  an  isolated  and 
newly-opened  territory,  where,  as  Professor  Shaler 
pointed  out,  the  "  common  law  "  had  a  struggle  for 
existence  with  "  the  motives  of  the  individual  man." 
Such  a  fight  was  carried  on  until  recent  times,  and  is 
still  heard  of,  between  civil  authority  and  the  unwrit 
ten  law  or  primitive  justice  of  the  mountain  people. 


II 

There  are  some  grades  of  Southern  humor  in  this 
ante-bellum  period  that  are  founded  upon  the  truest 
sense  of  proportion,  while  others  sink  into  low  wit 
based  upon  rough,  uncouth  falsification  of  incident 
and  character.  Humor  should  mean  sane  balance; 
it  rests  upon  a  complete  understanding  of  the  normal 
life.  Irving  possessed  that  genial  quality  and  so  did 
Kennedy;  but  the  former  was  unctuous  in  a  broad 
degree,  while  the  latter,  in  close  kinship,  was  natural 
by  reason  of  himself  rather  than  because  of  reflected 
English  qualities.  But  Joseph  G.  Baldwin  (1815- 
1864)  added  to  his  innate  humor  a  sound  comprehen 
sion  of  locality ;  he  brought  to  Alabama  from  Virginia 
certain  preconceived  notions  which  might  have  cut 
him  aloof  from  the  crude  life  of  the  state,  had  not 
his  mind  been  flexible  and  his  will  yielding  to  new 
conditions.  He  was  in  the  midst  of  that  stream  of 
emigration  flowing  southwest — 'Virginians,  Carolin 
ians,  Georgians,  and  Tennesseeans  on  the  move  across 
the  upper  part  of  Alabama;  in  fact,  Virginia  gripped 
Alabama  until  the  Civil  War,  leaving  evidence  of  her 
influence  in  the  names  of  counties. 

Huntsville  and  Tuscaloosa  were  the  towns  with 
some  pretensions  to  culture.  G.  F.  Mellen,  examin 
ing  the  status  of  this  society,  notes  the  pioneer  element 
that  mixed  with  the  Virginia  planter  and  lawyer  who 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  231 

dined,  wined  and  played  cards  together.  The  public 
square  was  the  rendezvous  for  Indian  fighters,  for 
lawyers  more  tuned  to  business  than  to  law  during 
"  flush  times,"  for  astute  men  and  profligates.  It  was 
not  an  easy  field  for  jurisprudence,  so  mixed  were  the 
land  claims,  so  uncontrollable  the  daring  attitude  of 
the  settlers.  Out  of  this  state  of  things,  nevertheless, 
grew  a  high  type  of  judiciary,  whose  decisions  were 
accounted  of  eminence. 

Baldwin  came  to  Alabama  in  the  typical  style — on 
horseback  through  three  states,  with  his  possessions 
weighing  down  his  saddle  bags.  From  Mississippi, 
where  he  first  encamped,  he  trailed  to  Gainesville, 
Georgia,  where  evidences  of  Yankee  activity  were  to 
be  seen.  Sumter  County  was  the  rich  center  of  Ala 
bama,  and  Baldwin  remained  there  from  1838  to 
1854,  enjoying  the  political  prestige  the  place  main 
tained.  From  his  associates,  he  drew  material  which 
now  is  stored  awray  in  "  Flush  Times  of  Alabama  and 
Mississippi."  They  were  a  genial  set  of  lawmakers  who 
would  adjourn  from  court  to  "  The  Choctaw  House  " 
for  jest  and  exchange  of  news.  In  the  midst  of 
democratic  principles,  Baldwin  adhered  to  his  Whig 
convictions,  which  destroyed  his  chances  for  political 
preferment,  however  popular  he  might  otherwise  have 
been. 

Baldwin's  days  ended  in  California  (1864),  where 
he  had  served  as  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court;  this 
change  of  residence  may  have  been  due  to  his  disap 
pointment  over  not  receiving  office,  but  more  likely  the 
gold  fever  of  '49  had  quite  a  little  to  do  with  his  seek 
ing  another  "  flush  time  "  experience. 

If  one  analyzes  Baldwin's  humor,  which  mostly  re 
lates  to  law,  its  fundamental  note  is  kindliness,  based 
on  thorough  sympathy ;  even  though  it  is  comical,  it 
is  also  true;  even  though  it  is  rollicking,  it  is  not  ir 
reverent.  Mr.  Mellen  comments  on  one  essential  fac- 


232    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

tor  in  it — the  absence  of  the  denominational  joke  which 
was  common  in  the  Lower  South — the  cheap  fun  at 
the  expense  of  Methodists  and  Baptists.  "  Flush 
Times"  is  a  document  full  of  vivid  pictures;  not  only 
has  it  the  fresh  sparkle  of  perennial  character,  but  its 
local  atmosphere  is  invaluable,  now  the  civilization  is 
gone". 

We  have  already  commented  on  "  Party  Leaders  " 
and  on  its  keen  discrimination  and  unusual  fairness 
of  judgment.  Baldwin  was  the  historian  with  a  deep 
sense  of  literary  values ;  at  times  his  attitude  was  based 
on  personal  preference,  but  all  the  more  valuable  is 
this  as  data,  in  determining  the.  political  status  of 
the  period.  His  style  often  became  efflorescent,  his 
method  picturesque,  but  always  his  approach  was  dig 
nified.  He  did  not  give  up  these  qualities  when  he 
turned  humorist;  he  simply  heightened  them,  adding 
those  peculiarities  which  mark  men  as  individual, 
welding  small  incident  and  small  weakness  together 
and  giving  them  wide  application. 

Time  and  place  are  the  two  elements  in  the  soil 
of  Southern  humor;  the  weaknesses  of  lawyers  are 
nowhere  better  seen  than  when  placed  where  they  can 
least  resist  circumstances ;  "  flush  times  "  in  Alabama 
acted  like  a  shower  of  rain  to  a  parched  field ;  idiosyn 
crasies  sprang  up  on  all  sides.  The  strange  blend 
of  pioneer  poverty  with  spendthrift  bravado  is  what 
makes  this  type  of  literature  worthy  as  human  evi 
dence.  "  Ovid  Bolus,  Esq.,"  is  a  sketch  equal  to  Mark 
Twain  at  his  best ;  it  is  redolent  of  the  most  delicate 
spirit  of  fine  distinctions.  Moliere  could  not  have  bet 
ter  placed  Bolus  than  in  these  words :  his  "  lying  came 
from  his  greatness  of  soul  and  his  comprehensiveness 
of  mind.  The  truth  was  too  small  for  him."  Irv- 
ing's  Knickerbocker  is  not  more  vivid,  though  as  a 
general  historical  figure  he  is  of  more  importance. 
Bolus  stands  as  the  quintessence  of  the  attractive 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  233 

scamp;  like  Don  Quixote,  "all  ideas  were  facts  to 
him."  Is  there  not  meat  for  the  imagination  in  such 
a  flash  as  "  his  recklessness  was,  for  the  most  part, 
lingual"?  His  failings  were  those  of  the  people  of 
Sumter  County,  simply  through  timely  allusion  satu 
rating  the  dialogue;  otherwise  the  conception  touches 
humanity  at  large, — wherever  humanity  is  weak. 

Baldwin's  characterizations  were  exceptional;  they 
bear  no  second-hand  repetition;  after  reading  them, 
one  has  a  portrait  and  a  sweep  of  local  condition.  The 
historian  will  never  impress  the  "  shinplaster "  craze 
upon  the  mind  as  indelibly  as  Baldwin,  in  "  How  the 
Times  Served  the  Virginians  " ;  as  a  basis  for  thorough 
social  understanding,  I  can  find  nothing  to  excel  it  in 
Southern  literature;  it  represents  diverse  struggles  of 
social  interests — the  conservative  element  through  it 
all,  opposing  "paper  fortunes" — the  conservative  ele 
ment  that  has  always  existed  in  the  South.  Here, 
commercial  fact  is  clad  in  human  attractiveness; 
Baldwin's  scoundrel  lawyers,  typified  in  Col.  Simon 
Suggs,  were  always  kept  within  the  pale  of  reason ; 
one  has  ever  a  silent  admiration  for  a  smart  scamp 
endowed  with  wit.  As  for  the  value  of  the  humor, 
it  is  impossible  to  dismiss  Baldwin's  "  oddities " 
lightly;  beneath  the  crust  of  external  peculiarity  lies 
the  rich  substratum  of  social  history.  He  saw  fully  and 
he  laughed  with  effect;  he  was  true  in  whole  result, 
however  broad  the  detail;  his  psychology  was  subtle, 
his  method  creative;  situation  grew  out  of  character, 
and  comment  emanated  from  the  clear-cut  conception. 
Bolus  suggests  an  actor;  he  is  not  cartoonish,  like 
Florence's  Bardwell  Slote  or  Raymond's  Mulberry 
Sellers,  but  he  is  more  typical  of  the  rich  vein  of  char 
acter  which  marks  American  life. 

Here  is  the  point  of  greatest  difference  between 
Baldwin  and  Judge  Augustus  B.  Longstreet  (1790- 
1870)  :  The  latter  dealt  with  the  humor  of  situation, 


234     THE   LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

of  local  transaction,  of  common  life  and  of  common 
habit.  "  Georgia  Scenes  "  enjoyed  a  widespread  pop 
ularity,  even  though  its  author  lived  to  regret  its 
existence,  when,  after  having  passed  through  a  varied 
career  as  lawyer,  judge,  politician,  planter,  lecturer, 
editor,  and  college  president,  his  interest  became 
deeply  concerned  in  the  ministry  and  in  serious  writ 
ing.  He  is  the  true  parent  of  later  Georgian  work 
from  the  pens  of  Richard  Malcolm  Johnston  and  Joel 
Chandler  Harris,  whose  art  became  more  polished, 
largely  the  reflection  of  a  modification  in  the  moral 
conditions  of  local  life  itself.  For  the  chief  value  of 
"  Georgia  Scenes  "  is  to  be  found  in  the  vanished  cus 
tom  it  represents,  the  rough  kindness,  the  crude  pleas 
ure  it  depicts. 

Longstreet's  preface  contains  the  usual  apology  of 
the  newspaper  humorist — that  his  sketches  were  too  de 
pendent  upon  the  element  of  timeliness  ever  to  obtain 
attention  from  later  readers;  he  claims  for  them  that 
they  are  "nothing  more  than  fanciful  combination*  of 
real  incidents  and  characters,"  based  upon  personal  ex 
perience.  They  came  to  light  in  the  usual  manner, 
through  his  own  gazette,  the  Augusta  Sentinel,  in 
1835;  their  excellence  lies  in  the  pungent  minuteness 
of  their  detail,  dealing  as  they  do  with  men  and  women 
of  the  lower  and  louder  order.  Longstreet  attempted 
to  be  real;  he  warned  his  readers  that  if  at  times  his 
language  became  "  coarse,  inelegant,  and  sometimes 
ungrammatical,"  "  it  is  language  accommodated  to  the 
capacity  of  the  person  to  whom  he  represents  himself 
as  speaking." 

In  "  Georgia  Scenes  "  one  is  transplanted  to  a  primi 
tive  community,  childish  in  thought  and  action.  These 
separate  sketches  were  signed  in  different  manner, 
Hall  being  responsible  for  masculine  delineation,  Bald 
win  for  feminine — and  both  showing  about  the  same 
amount  of  rustic  spirit,  relieved  of  conventions  and 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  235 

prompted  by  the  camaraderie  of  children.  Here  one 
obtains  local  color  in  quantity ;  not  merely  in  the  type 
of  mind,  but  in  the  habit  and  custom  of  economic,! 
social,  and  political  life.  Each  sketch  is  typical,!  v 
couched  in  language  that  has  flavor  of  the  open;  oc 
casionally  there  are  flashes  of  sentiment  after  the  man 
ner  of  Thackeray,  and  sometimes  the  faithful  accuracy 
in  recording  outward  detail  results  in  a  brutal  quality 
that  is  common  among  rustic  folk ;  "  The  Gander  Pull 
ing  "  exemplifies  this  last  quality.  The  psychology 
of  these  "  Georgia  Scenes  "  is  more  violent  than  that 
to  which  Baldwin  was  accustomed,  but  it  is  kept  in 
proportion  by  the  exactitude  with  which  the  outward 
facts  are  recorded.  In  the  future,  anyone  who  would 
have  a  faithful  portraiture  of  the  Georgia  Cracker  will 
have  to  turn  to  "  Georgia  Scenes  " ;  the  style  is  not 
distinctive,  but  the  material  is  significant,  for  the  old 
order  changes,  giving  place  to  new. 

Still,  Southern  humor  could  not  escape  the  special 
"  funny  man."  Such  writing  flourishes  upon  news 
paper  support,  yet  not  quite  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
comic  sheet  which  satisfies  a  popular  demand ;  for 
though  Thompson's  Major  Jones  performs  the  most 
absurd  deeds,  they  are  not  wholly  irreconcilable  with 
his  character;  they  are  not  violently  distorted.  When 
there  is  coarseness  or  vulgarity,  the  reason  is  either 
rough  character  or  primitive  condition ;  it  was  as  nat 
ural  for  the  Georgia  Cracker  to  be  uncouth,  as  it  was 
customary  for  him  at  the  same  time  to  show  himself 
possessed  of  fine  feeling  and  loyalty. 

These  writers  who  delineated  special  types  were 
forerunners  of  the  present  local  author.  They  were 
usually  engaged  in  the  legal  profession  or  in  duty 
apart  from  their  humorous  talent.  They  were  men 
closely  in  touch  with  their  time,  founding  newspapers, 
and  accomplishing  an  infinite  variety  of  things.  Au 
thorship  again  became  a  side  issue.  William  Tappan 


j;/>     THE   LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

Thompson  (1812-1882)  did  not  concentrate  his  ener 
gies;  in  the  midst  of  his  varied  efforts  in  politics,  in 
law,  in  a  Philadelphia  newspaper  office,  he  would  prob 
ably  never  have  turned  his  attention  to  such  writing 
as  he  began  to  do,  had  he  not  associated  himself  with 
Judge  Longstreet  on  the  Augusta  Sentinel.  Never 
stationary,  he  dropped  the  seeds  of  journalism  in  many 
small  Georgia  towns,  meanwhile  winning  reputation 
with  Major  Jones,  who  afterwards  filled  three  vol 
umes  with  his  adventures.  Thompson  was  a  soldier, 
a  dramatist,  an  editor  of  law  books.  In  view  of  this, 
Major  Jones  is  all  the  more  remarkable  as  a  type 
created  under  special  conditions.  The  broad  humor  is 
genial,  its  one  great  fault  being  a  lack  of  contrast  in 
the  fun.  As  an  index  of  the  moment,  the  sketches  de-/  ^ 
serve  closer  acquaintance ;  the  art  of  the  author  lay  inl 
the  power  of  appreciation  he  developed  for  the  minor 
notes  in  thought  and  action. 

Johnson  Jones  Hooper  (1815-1862)  won  renown 
by  developing  the  son  of  Simon  Suggs,  whom  Bald 
win  sketched  in  "  Flush  Times " ;  a  rascal  around 
whom  circulated  a  large  part  of  the  lowly  life  of  Ala 
bama.  G.  W.  Harris  ( 1814-1868)  created  Sut  Loven- 
good  of  Tennessee;  Charles  H.  Smith  ( 1823-1903),  a 
Georgian  of  a  little  later  period,  identified  himself 
with  Bill  Arp,  even  as  closely  as  Mr.  Dunne  has  with 
Mr.  Dooley,  for  the  definite  purpose,  as  he  said  in  the 
preface,  of  detracting  the  mind  "  from  the  momentous 
and  absorbing  interests  of  the  war."  The  very  value 
of  all  this  local  humor,  as  Smith  claims,  lies  in  the  fact 
that  though  "  sideshows,"  the  incidents  form  "  an  in 
dex  to  our  feelings  and  si-mi  incuts."  It  is  of  interest 
to  note  here  how  these  men  painfully  practiced  the  art 
of  dialect  which  marked  the  poor  white  of  the  South, 
leaving,  until  the  advent  of  Joel  Chandler  Harris,  the 
true  tone  and  color  of  the  negro  speech.  When  he 
came  to  gathering  together  the  war  wisdom  of  Sut 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  237 

Lovcngood,  Smith  found  it  necessary  to  prune  the  pe 
culiarity  of  his  "  unlettered  countryman,"  to  remodel 
the  orthography,  believing  that  his  humor  would  be 
better  understood,  even  though  the  outward  marks  of 
his  person  were  thus  changed.  Certainly  his  writing, 
if  not  generally  typical  of  high  humor,  displays  a  tem 
per,  the  measure  of  Southern  strain. 

As  there  was  the  humor  of  "  flush  times,"  so  there 
was  the  nervous  humor  of  camp  life ;  the  pioneer,  rep 
resented  by  Davy  Crockett,  possessed  a  quaintness 
comparable  in  some  respects  to  the  kindliness  of  the 
colonial  author,  Colonel  William  Byrd,  though  not 
seasoned  with  any  of  Byrd's  aristocratic  grace.  The 
geniality  of  the  Lower  South  did  not  over-shadow  the 
Mozis  Addums  of  the  Virginian,  Dr.  George  William 
Bagby  (1828-1883),  who  had  newspaper  and  maga 
zine  experience,  which  gave  him  an  opportunity  of  de 
veloping  a  local  slang  as  marked  in  a  way  as  that  of 
George  Ade,  or  of  others  of  the  Indiana  school.  Bagby 
gives  a  view  of  life  in  Virginia  which,  coupled  with 
the  studies  of  Mr.  Page,  preserves  some  of  the  rare 
characteristics  of  the  State.  Like  his  contemporaries, 
he  mixes  the  incongruous  with  sage  philosophy. 

To-day,  these  ante-bellum  humorists  are  hardly 
known;  their  books,  out  of  print,  no  longer  circulate 
in  libraries,  and  we  let  slip  a  deal  of  true  humanity 
because  the  timely  event  is  passed.  If  Bagby  is  known 
at  all  to  the  general  reader,  it  is  because  his  famous 
"  Jud  Brownin's  Account  of  Rubinstein's  Playing " 
graces  some  recitation  book.  And  even  though  the 
name  of  Hooper's  hero,  Simon  Suggs  of  the  Talla- 
poosa  Volunteers,  is  familiar  to  Southern  ears,  the 
reader  is  more  likely  to  remember  this  author's  farcical 
description  of  "  Taking  the  Census,"  apart  from  who 
took  it. 

The  timeliness  of  this  humor  has  an  earlier  example 
in  Brackenridge's  "  Modern  Chivalry,"  which,  re- 


238    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

counting  the  adventures  of  a  Captain  and  Tcaguc 
O' Regan,  after  the  manner  of  "  Don  Quixote,"  con 
tained  many  social  touches  typical  of  the  period  of 
Clay  and  Crawford. 

This  particular  species  of  literature  in  the  South  is 
strictly  of  the  soil,  marking  the  condition.  It  is  spon 
taneous,  the  outward  expression  of  an  innate  realiza 
tion  of  local  need ;  it  is  framed  in  the  light  of  political 
occurrence,  of  social  condition,  mental  and  economic. 
It  is  strictly  American  in  the  broader  sense  of  national 
flexibility  of  character;  it  is  strictly  Southern  in  its 
use  of  temperament  and  environment. 


CHAPTER   X 
PIONEER   NOVELISTS 

SIMMS,  KENNEDY,  TUCKER,  AND  CARRUTHERS 

THE  pioneer  novelists  in  the  South  present  interest 
ing  contrasts,  even  though  their  sentiment  is  of  the 
same  color,  and  their  delineation  of  character  is  after 
the  same  manner.  From  the  historical  viewpoint,  in 
their  opinions  they  are  indicative  of  how  far  conditions 
affected  the  imagination  of  the  author ;  from  the  social 
viewpoint,  they  represent  a  stereotyped  formality 
which  gave  charm  to  bearing,  however  much  it 
prompted  inconsistency  of  action ;  from  the  standpoint 
of  literary  species,  they  exemplify  the  influence  of 
their  restricted  culture  and  of  their  particular  tastes. 

The  vitality  of  any  biography  is  to  be  found  in  the 
vividness  with  which  the  subject  lives;  the  study  of 
literature  should,  after  all,  be  made  a  broad,  active  field 
of  association;  Cooper,  the  novelist,  cannot  be  sepa 
rated  from  Cooper,  the  man.  If  you  reduce  the  consid 
eration  to  a  physical  plane,  the  vigor  of  a  man's  style 
depends  upon  his  outlook;  his  whole  nature  is  a  prod 
uct  of  the  very  air  he  breathes,  of  the  very  trail  he  fol 
lows,  of  the  very  events  which  confront  him. 

These  pioneer  novelists  lived  in  the  formative  period 
of  American  life;  when  Cooper  first  made  the  trip  to 
Detroit,  people  considered  the  venture  an  unusual  un 
dertaking,  for  beyond  that  place  all  was  primeval  for 
est.  William  Gilmore  Simms,  in  the  South,  possessed 
the  same  scope  of  vision;  he  did  for  the  South  and 
Southwest  what  Cooper  did  for  the  North — that  is, 

239 


240    THE   LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

caught  the  evanescent  atmosphere  of  an  unfrequented 
country,  recorded  the  rough,  simple  customs  of  iso 
lated  people,  and  impressed  upon  a  canvas,  redolent 
with  savage  uncouthness,  the  spirit  of  heroic  senti 
ment. 

Yet  in  the  contrast  of  Cooper  and  Simms,  it  is  re 
markable  that  the  latter  fails  to  rise  to  the  height  of 
the  former,  though  his  work,  taken  in  detail,  exhibits 
him  equally  as  inventive,  as  observant,  and  as  con 
scious  of  historical  development.  Simms  had  large 
faults;  the  rapidity  with  which  he  worked  made  him 
careless,  forced  him  into  contradictory  statement  and 
conflicting  description.  He  was  more  violent  than 
Cooper,  more  prone  to  make  use  of  the  melodramatic. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  his  lights  and  shades  were 
more  evenly  distributed,  and  his  middle-class  "  pio 
neer,"  so  to  speak,  more  typical  and  unusual.  His  In 
dians  were  marked  with  more  of  the  savage  qualities — • 
a  characteristic  which  often  forced  Simms,  in  a  graphic 
style,  to  resort  to  the  revolting,  typical  examples  of 
which  are  to  be  found  in  "  The  Yemassee." 

Professor  Trent's  life  of  William  Gilmore  Simms 
is  far  more  than  a  mere  record  of  biographical  events ; 
it  follows  the  course  of  Southern  civilization  through 
his  career  (1806-1870),  adding  a  commentary,  the 
whole  of  which  results  in  a  vivid  and  just  view  of 
Southern  limitations.  Nothing  can  be  more  tempting 
for  a  biographer  of  Simms  than  to  lay  stress  upon 
the  consuming  aristocratic  prejudice  in  Charleston, 
which  made  the  social  life  falsely  conservative,  and 
against  which  Simms  struggled  bravely  for  recogni 
tion. 

The  many  events  in  his  life  are  not  so  varied — the 
usual  struggles  and  reaching  out  for  a  vocation :  the 
usual  mistaken  estimates  of  his  own  powers,  seen  in 
his  disappointment  that  as  a  novelist  he  overshadowed 
himself  as  a  poet,  and  also  in  his  regret  that  political 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  241 

preferment  was  denied  him.  Notwithstanding  his 
numerous  contentions  with  prejudice  and  with  men 
who  stood  in  his  way,  like  Crafts  and  Legare,  Simms 
won  his  place  in  a  fair  fight,  and  familiarized  himself 
with  South  Carolina  so  thoroughly  that  few  could  ex 
cel  him  in  his  grasp  of  history.  Like  most  of  his  con 
temporaries,  his  career  in  authorship  is  somewhat 
identified  with  the  rise  andi  fall  of  those  Southern 
periodicals  which  never  took  root  in  Southern  soil, 
since  the  soil  was  never  prepared  for  them.  Were  we 
to  examine  closely  enough,  we  might  be  able  to  show 
how  Simms,  at  first  ardently  opposing  nullification 
while  he  was  editor  of  the  City  Gazette,  later,  to  use 
Professor  Trent's  expression,  "  squinted  strongly  in 
Calhoun's  direction."  In  truth,  Simms  was  distinc 
tively  Southern,  despite  the  fact  that  his  visits  to  the 
North  and  his  friendships  there  aided  him  in  his  lit 
erary  progress.  He  began  as  a  Union  supporter,  with 
a  firm  belief  in  states'  rights ;  one  must  know  the  po 
litical  status  to  understand  how  this  seemingly  contra 
dictory  civic  faith  could  be  in  1832.  But  by  1849, 
Simms  was  no  longer  a  Union  man,  and  his  reason  for 
change  is  a  part  of  the  history  of  secession  in  South 
Carolina.  In  his  arguments  on  the  subject  of  slavery, 
Simms  is  rather  an  average  example  of  the  average 
opinion  held,  than  a  brilliant  supporter  of  the  cause; 
he  fell  into  many  absurdities,  but  was  not  alone  in  this 
respect.  A  very  excellent  gauge  of  his  political  temper 
is  found  in  his  correspondence  with  Beverley  Tucker, 
who  lent  him  assistance  on  the  Southern  Quarterly, 
and  who  in  his  person  symbolized  the  extreme  sup 
port  of  states'  rights. 

And  sp,  having  once  determined  that  secession  was 
inevitable,  that  a  confederacy  already  existed  in  spirit, 
if  not  in  name,  Simms  threw  himself  energetically  into 
the  coming  storm.  Though  not  as  keen  a  conspirator 
as  Tucker,  who  always  sought  to  "  shatter  the  Union/5 


242    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

yet  Simms  ardently  longed  for  conformity  of  senti 
ment  in  the  South.  South  Carolina  had  once  tried  se 
cession,  and  the  South  had  not  stood  by  her  in  1833; 
what  would  she  do  in  1850?  "Were  South  Carolina 
to  secede,"  he  wrote,  "  her  ports  would  be  blocked  up, 
her  trade  would  pass  to  Georgia,  and  the  appeal  to 
Georgia  cupidity,  filled  as  that  State  is  with  Yankee 
traders,  would  be  fatal  to  her  patriotism."  This  in 
terstate  jealousy,  as  well  as  the  political  differences 
among  the  Southern  people  themselves,  was  a  weak 
ness  the  Southern  Confederacy  did  not  count  upon. 
As  Simms  became  more  and  more  keen  on  the  sub 
ject,  unrelieved  by  any  humor,  his  eye  grew  jaun 
diced,  and  he  could  see  no  good  in  Northern  activity, 
damning  the  whole  New  England  school  of  writers, 
and  denying  them  the  capacity  for  art  since  they  had 
shown  such  a  capacity  for  abolitionism. 

So  deeply  concerned  was  Simms  in  the  issue,  that 
he  personally  was  changed  by  the  whole  trend  of 
events;  in  a  sense  he  became  the  successor  of  Tucker 
in  public  influence,  and  when  he  went  to  New  York 
to  lecture,  he  reaped  the  full  effect  of  his  outspoken 
defiance  of  the  North.  Sometimes,  in  the  preface  to 
his  novels,  he  rated  his  critics  soundly,  though  not  as 
terribly  as  Cooper  did  through  his  life.  But  now, 
Simms,  super-sensitive,  began  to  imagine  the  North 
wholly  antagonistic  to  him ;  he  was  too  heated  to  sum 
mon  before,  him  the  countless  advantages  his  literary 
career  had  reaped  from  that  section ;  he  did  not  wholly 
see  that  in  the  Savannah  Convention  of  1856,  when 
Southern  educational  books  were  being  discussed,  and 
when  he  was  ignored  as  a  member  of  the  committee 
on  literature,  the  South  had  often  before  shown 
him  neglect,  where  the  North  had  given  him  recogni 
tion.  During  this  period  of  tension,  Simms  barely 
escaped  being  a  fire-eater. 

Professor  Lounsbury,  having  reached  the  reaction- 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  243 

ary  period  in  his  "  Life  "  of  Cooper,  claimed  that  the 
author  of  Leather  stocking  did  not  keep  up  with  the 
rapid  growth  of  the  country.  Some  may  claim  that  a 
man  reaches  the  crest  of  his  nature  and  advances  no 
farther,  but  either  remains  stationary,  seeing  the  hori 
zon  further  and  further  off,  or  else  relinquishes  his  po 
sition  with  the  weakening  of  his  powers.  This  is  partly 
true  of  the  whole  ante-bellum  South;  having  reached 
a  point,  mentally  and  socially,  the  people  stood  still, 
the  only  unstable  position  being  the  economic  problem, 
which  was  threatened  from  outside.  But  when  actual 
war  devastated  the  land,  it  was  no  longer  time  for 
political  hesitation ;  it  was  a  matter  of  loyalty  to  home 
that  brought  the  Southerner  to  the  ranks.  Simms 
could  not  fight — his  physical  weakness  prevented  that ; 
but  with  his  pen  he  displayed  a  directive  genius  that 
was  exceptional,  and  he  gave  suggestions  which, 
though  often  ignored,  were  none  the  less  measure 
of  his  excitement,  and  of  his  keen  observation. 
Cooper's  accounts  of  the  navy  are  not  more  distinctive 
than  Simms'  data  relating  to  the  Civil  War,  especially 
his  pamphlet  on  the  "  Sack  and  Destruction  of  the 
City  of  Columbia,  S.  C."  He  was  in  the  midst  of  fire 
and  conflagration,  and,  during  the  ordeal,  his  own 
"  Woodlands,"  scene  of  many  a  literary  conclave  and 
of  much  family  peace,  was  burned  to  the  ground. 
There  came  a  time  in  the  war  when  the  best  element 
of  the  South  tried  to  put  a  stop  to  the  charred  trail 
of  razed  homesteads,  and  to  the  mounds  with  the 
unknown  dead;  when  every  family  could  point  to  its 
vacant  place,  and  realize  that,  after  all,  the  cause  was 
not  sufficiently  strong  for  such  sacrifice.  For  the  far 
horizon  was  moving  further  away,  and  the  nations 
of  the  earth  were  advancing,  while  the  South  re 
mained  behind.  Simms'  feelings  were  not  in  any  way 
appeased  when  he  saw  around  him  the  suffering  of 
his  literary  friends — Timrod,  Hayne,  and  others  in 


244     THE   LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

the  midst  of  reconstruction.  With  Hayne,  particu 
larly,  he  was  most  in  correspondence  during  these 
last  years. 

A  detailed  account  of  Simms'  activity  is  out  of  the 
question  here;  an  examination  of  Professor  Trent's 
partial  bibliography  will  not  only  convey  some  idea  of 
the  variety  of  his  activity  in  the  various  departments 
of  literature,  but  also  of  his  interest  in  the  widely  sep 
arate  territorial  places  described.  For  in  his  romances 
he  has  touched  every  one  of  the  Southern  States,  and 
while  the  local  colors  are  all  uneven,  there  are  pas 
sages  of  historical  and  of  natural  force,  however  much 
they  may  lack  true  atmosphere.  Simms  was  skillful 
in  invention ;  he  could  not  escape  being  dull  at  times, 
for  he  wrote  too  persistently  to  maintain  an  even  style. 
Yet  we  must  confess  that  the  activity  of  his  plots  often 
times  is  a  means  of  disguising  the  slovenliness  of  his 
style. 

No  doubt,  being  so  prolific,  he  watched  the  literary 
market  and  often  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  literary 
success,  but  he  was  never  a  servile  imitator.  Though 
there  is  no  denying  his  closeness  to  Cooper  in  many 
respects,  his  treatment  is  individual  and  more  varied ; 
"  The  Partisan  "  was  suggested  by  the  reception  given 
to  Kennedy's  "  Horse-Shoe  Robinson."  Simms  was 
lacking  in  repression ;  not  only  was  he  prone  to  des 
cant  upon  the  disagreeable,  but  he  often  made  use  of 
the  newspaper  sensationalism  which  takes  as  its  proper 
province  the  exploitation  of  relentless  immorality. 
"  Beauchampe  "  and  "  Charlemont "  are  of  such  char 
acter. 

Much  that  Simms  did  is  well  worth  considering. 
Biographer,  historian,  poet,  dramatist,  essayist,  re 
viewer,  editor — he  was  one  of  the  first  examples  of 
the  professional  literary  man  in  the  South;  the  neces 
sity  for  looking  toward  the  future  made  him  plan 
scenes  of  romances,  which,  though  complete  in  them- 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  245 

selves,  carried  the  characters  forward  from  one  book 
to  the  other.  Distracting  interests  often  intervened 
between  the  writing  of  these,  and  to  this  lack  of  suc 
cession  may  be  due  some  of  the  careless  discrepancies 
in  detail.  But,  in  estimating  Simms,  the  student  needs 
to  consider  his  work  in  bulk — no  mean  record — and 
to  note  the  descriptions  of  custom  and  the  autobio 
graphical  flashes.  For,  even  as  Simms  claimed  that 
the  defeat  of  his  political  aspirations  drove  him  to 
literature  and  away  from  law,  where  he  only  earned 
a  pittance,  so  his  struggles  in  Charleston  developed  in 
his  writing  those  democratic  sentiments  which  were 
always  uppermost  when  he  described  a  backwoods 
crowd,  or  a  forest  congregation  listening  to  a  circuit 
rider. 

There  are  small  expressions  dotting  every  page  of 
"  Guy  Rivers,"  one  of  the  "  border  romances/'  indica 
tive  of  time  and  place;  the  trial  of  a  Yankee  peddler, 
the  stump  orator,  a  hold-up  in  the  "  wilds,"  an  account 
of  the  regulators,  pictures  of  squatter  settlements — 
these  are  the  details  in  which  Simms  excelled.  He 
made  use  of  them  in  a  realistic  manner,  stepping  aside 
from  his  conscious  role  of  novelist  to  narrate  vividly 
some  incident  of  minor  worth,  and  then  resuming  his 
task  by  using  such  phrases  as  "with  the  recognized 
privilege  of  the  romancer." 

After  the  manner  of  the  time,  Simms  often  resorted 
to  the  moral  lecture,  to  the  admonitory  tone;  his 
method  of  creating  suspense  was  to  force  a  pause  in 
the  narrative  and  to  argue  philosophically  while  fate 
hung  in  the  balance,  an  old  device — and  only  a  device 
after  all.  He  made  frequent  use  of  the  archaic  form, 
and  so  easily  could  he  manufacture  startling  situations 
that  he  lost  control  of  probability,  and,  as  in  the  case  of 
Bess  Matthews,  heroine  of  "The  Yemassee,"  show 
ered  startling  incident  heavily  upon  her.  His  stories 
hang  loosely,  though  they  are  none  the  less  entertain- 


246    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

ing;  the  romancer  of  the  day  was  stilted  in  phraseology 
— words  which  represent  broad  outward  expression 
rather  than  inward  subtle  distinction;  that  is  strictly 
the  melodramatist's  prerogative.  Man  is  humbled 
'neath  a  woman's  scorn  on  one  page,  while,  on  the 
next,  the  same  maiden's  lips  might  tremble  because 
of  some  advantage  taken  of  her  woman's  weakness. 
The  local  sense  in  Simms  was  strong;  his  tendency 
to  report  faithfully  what  he  had  seen  detracted  from 
the  inspirational  quality  in  his  romances;  he  was 
rough,  hasty,  but  none  the  less  observant,  turning  to 
excellent  account  the  luxuriance  of  nature;  his  natural 
history  was  gleaned  from  direct  association,  his 
gathering  of  tradition  was  successful  through  personal 
effort,  his  knowledge  of  border  life  came  through 
border  travel.  As  Professor  Trent  has  emphasized, 
Simms  appeared  at  a  moment  when  something  new 
was  wanted  in  the  American  novel,  among  readers 
who  had  tired  of  Paulding  and  of  Bird;  he  adopted 
the  traditions  of  Scott  and  of  Cooper;  he  was  influ 
enced  by  Godwin ;  his  preface  to  "  Martin  Faber " 
( 1834)  placed  him  at  once  in  that  class  of  authors  who 
resented  the  average  reviewer.  His  friendships,  with 
Forrest,  the  actor,  on  one  hand,  helped  further  to 
increase  his  attachment  to  the  theater,  and  with  Bryant 
and  Duyckinck  on  the  other,  increased  his  prominence 
as  the  leading  Southern  author.  Simms  possessed  the 
strength  of  the  story-teller,  tinged  with  the  morbid, 
which  is  an  essential  characteristic  of  melodrama.  For 
that  reason,  Poe  was  partly  attracted  to  him.  Even 
though,  when  the  "  Partisan"  first  appeared,  he  spent 
much  space  in  indicating  the  artistic  blunders  of  the 
new  author,  Poe  unerringly  caught  some  of  Simms' 
chief  excellences:  his  graphic  historical  detail,  the 
exquisite  descriptions  of  swamp  scenery,  the  effective 
eye  of  the  painter.  He  sounded  likewise  the  chief  de 
fect  of  the  Southern  historical  novelist :  more  surety  in 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  247 

the  "  sober  truth  "  than  in  "  constructive  imagination  " 
— no  doubt  a  chief  element  in  the  historic  sense.  But 
his  eye  as  a  painter  did  not  prevent  him  from  often 
committing  mistakes  which,  to  Poe's  mind,  fell  little 
short  of  bad  taste,  even  though  he  rated  Simms  next 
to  Cooper  among  American  novelists. 

Kennedy  was  the  senior  of  Simms  by  eleven  years 
(1795-1870),  though  their  active  literary  lives  may  be 
said  to  have  embraced  the  same  period.  The  one  had 
much  of  the  geniality  of  Irving ;  the  other,  as  we  have 
said,  much  of  the  masculinity  and  irritability  of 
Cooper;  they  both  did  much  for  the  history  of  the 
South  in  preserving  data  of  social  value.  Kennedy 
gained  that  political  recognition  which  .Simms  most 
desired;  Simms  lived  in  part  the  literary  life  which 
Kennedy's  public  services  prevented  him  from  doing. 
The  latter  was  not  handicapped  at  the  outset  by  the 
necessity  of  combating  class  prejudice,  since  the  Pen- 
dletons  were  a  long  line,  distinguished  in  Virginia 
history.  With  this  advantage,  with  a  keen  sense  of 
humor  inherited  from  his  father,  with  a  good  educa 
tion  had  from  Baltimore  College,  and  with  a  fairly 
easy  road  to  travel,  circumstances  put  much  in  Ken 
nedy's  way  to  hasten  his  quick  rise. 

There  was  left  among  his  papers  an  excellently  told 
story  of  his  early  life,  as  genially  written  as  his  narra 
tive  of  the  career  of  Wirt;  in  it,  one  notes  a  charac 
teristic  of  the  pioneer, — a  topographical  knowledge  of 
the  country  which  the  convenience  of  the  railroad  has 
now  obliterated;  it  was  rarely  that  Kennedy  and  his 
horse  were  parted.  These  youthful  explorations  of  his, 
serving  him  later  in  his  writing,  and  in  his  wanderings 
with  Washington  Irving,  likewise  accustomed  him  to 
various  hardships  which  he  hoped  for  in  a  roman 
tic  vein,  when  the  War  of  1812  began. 

But  though  he  saw  service  just  after  he  graduated, 
it  was  a  light  enough  affair,  and  the  description  is  re- 


248    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

plete  with  excellent  good  nature.  After  this  excite 
ment  subsided,  Kennedy  settled  down  to  the  existence 
which  Baltimore  afforded ;  it  was  not  a  markedly  liter 
ary  center  like  Charleston;  its  people  were  more  con 
cerned  about  manufactures  and  trade  than  about  cul 
ture;  the  bar  and  the  press  were  the  centers  for  any 
spirit  pertaining  to  the  cultivation  of  letters.  With 
Kennedy's  growth  in  influence,  there  was  a  like  in 
crease  in  the  direction  which  always  elicited  his  deep 
est  concern ;  he  was  regarded  by  the  older  men  as  part 
of  that  infusion  of  new  blood  of  which  the  commu 
nity  was  most  in  need ;  he  gained  confidence  much  be 
yond  his  years  in  weight  and  dignity ;  largely  this  was 
granted  him  through  charm  of  personality,  but  as  well 
through  assiduous  application. 

His  first  literary  attempt  was  "The  Red  Book," 
which  he  and  a  friend  conceived  in  the  spirit  of  Irv- 
ing's  and  Paulding's  "  Salmagundi."  A  bright, 
youthful  mixture  was  this  of  essay  and  verse,  but  the 
publication  soon  ceased,  and  Kennedy  found  himself, 
in  1820,  elected  to  the  legislature  of  Maryland.  There 
after,  his  interest  in  public  matters  consumed  a  large 
proportion  of  his  energies. 

Shortly  after  his  first  marriage  in  1824,  Kennedy's 
wife  died,  and  five  years  later  he  was  married 
to  a  Miss  Gray,  whose  father  was  owner  of  Ellicott's 
Mills,  which  figure  so  prominently  in  Kennedy's  life. 
Political  activity  kept  the  latter  away  from  home  much 
of  his  time,  but  presented  him  with  the  opportunity  of 
a  correspondence  fraught  with  good  sense,  keen  senti 
ment,  and  unctuous  appreciation  of  events.  During  this 
period  he  was  enjoying  the  confidence  of  Henr^l  Clay. 

In  the  midst  of  his  official  activity,  Kennedy  found 
time  to  write  "  Swallow  Barn,"  a  series  of  sketches 
after  the  manner  of  the  Queen  Anne  essayists,  and 
flavored  with  the  same  quaintness  found  in  Irving's 
"  Sketch  Book  "  and  "  Bracebridge  Hall."  The  fact 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  249 

is,  the  pages  are  fairly  saturated  with  the  rare  charm 
of  Virginia  life,  and  there  is  small  wonder  that  the 
time  should  come  when  Thackeray,  in  the  midst  of 
writing  "  The  Virginians,"  would  ask  Kennedy  to 
prepare  a  chapter  of  that  novel  for  him;  there  is  no 
direct  evidence  that  this  was  done,  but  nevertheless  it 
shows  how  closely  Kennedy's  sympathy  lay  to  the  quiet 
environment  of  his  early  days.  Tuckerman  claims 
with  much  truth  that  "the  artistic  process  of  minute 
and  patient  delineation  adopted  by  Mr.  Kennedy  in 
'  Swallow  Barn/  is  identical  with  that  which  pre 
serves  to  us  so  vividly  the  country  life  of  England  in 
Jane  Austen's  day,  and  the  ecclesiastical  of  our  own 
as  photographed  by  Trollope." 

In  some  respects,  we  may  say  that  Mr.  Page  is 
Kennedy's  successor  in  the  presentation  of  a  passing 
atmosphere,  but  he  does  not  saturate  his  scenes  so 
thoroughly  with  the  essence  of  external  peace  and 
quiet.  The  reviews  of  "Swallow  Barn  "  greeted  cor 
dially  its  unknown  author,  yclept  Mark  Littleton ;  they 
saw  in  the  book  genuine  feeling,  though  they  realized 
that  its  originality  consisted  in  the  quietness  and 
human  manner  of  treatment,  rather  than  in  uniqueness 
of  subject.  For  life  in  Virginia  had  been  the  first 
thought  of  most  of  her  sons,  even  from  Jefferson  in 
his  "  Notes  "  and  Wirt  in  his  "  Letters,"  to  Northern 
travelers  and  foreign  visitors.  Indeed,  the  attraction 
held  out  by  such  a  life  to  the  contemplative  style, 
has  handicapped  all  progressive  movement  among 
Virginia  writers,  even  making  them  loath  to  rise 
above  conventional  phrases  by  which  that  life  is  rec 
ognized. 

"  Swallow  Barn  "  is  not  a  novel  in  the  unified  sense ; 
it  is  replete  with  minute  observation,  tempered  by  a 
philosophical  desire  to  indicate  the  value  of  that 
humanity  threatened  by  the  changes  of  advancing 
time.  The  text  is  warm  with  the  beauty  of  Southern 


250    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

life,  but  there  is  a  fairness  in  Kennedy's  view  that  rec 
ognizes  the  limitations  as  well  as  the  excellences;  the 
author  was  too  much  of  the  cosmopolitan  to  lose 
sight  of  this.  Kennedy's  style  is  attractive  and  full 
of  the  personal  element  that  is  friendly  and  genial ; 
in  the  deep  sense  he  is  humorous,  and  as  his  richness 
comes  from  the  root  of  character  rather  than  from  dis 
tortion  of  motive  and  falsification  of  situation,  he 
is  never  tiresome.  Had  he  been  content  with  the 
straight  essay  form,  he  might  have  equaled  Irving, 
and  been  more  thoroughly  suggestive  of  Lamb.  He 
was  largely  affected  by  the  literary  fashions  of  the 
day,  and  could  not  escape  the  just  accusation  that  he 
was  imitative ;  in  his  "  fable  "  he  reflects  Scott,  par 
ticularly  in  the  heroine  of  "Swallow  Barn,"  Bel 
Tracy,  whose  hoydenish  manner  smacks  somewhat  of 
Diana  Vernon.  In  his  subjects,  as  well  as  in  the  method 
of  treatment,  the  comparison  between  Irving  and 
himself  is  striking.  He  was  imitative,  much  more  so 
than  Simms,  but  his  distinctive  excellence  was  his 
sane  outlook,  largely  a  matter  of  personal  disposition. 
"  Horse-Shoe  Robinson  "  ( 1836)  was  the  next  work 
from  Kennedy's  pen;  in  it  were  combined  two  qualities 
which  marked  his  life — his  love  of  nature  and  his 
historic  sense.  In  a  way,  the  story  bears  evidence  of 
a  familiarity  with  Cooper  as  well  as  with  Scott ;  its 
hero  had  a  counterpart  in  real  life,  a  method  the  early 
novelists  had  of  drawing  fully  upon  the  actual. 
Horse-Shoe  Robinson,  the  backwoodsman,  is  as  re 
markable  in  a  way  as  Leather  slocking,  but  he  is 
little  known  to  the  present  generation.  Twenty  years 
after  his  appearance,  when  the  American  stage  was 
filled  with  crude  attempts  at  the  portrayal  of  Amer 
ican  character,  Kennedy's  hero  was  acted  by  James 
H.  Hackett,  who  had  at  various  times  brought  the 
work  of  James  K.  Paulding  and  Washington  Irving 
to  the  theater.  On  witnessing  the  first  performance, 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  251 

Kennedy's  verdict  was :  "  It  is  amazingly  noisy,  and 
full  of  battles,  and  amuses  the  gallery  hugely." 

"  Horse-Shoe  Robinson "  is  a  type  of  book  that 
is  full  of  incident  and  of  South  Carolina  history;  it 
is  not  sustained  in  interest,  but  has  definite  sections 
where  the  action  is  spirited  and  where  the  style  is 
vivid.  One  may  understand  the  frequency  with  which 
the  reviewers  applied  the  word  "  study  "  to  these  ante 
bellum  novels,  with  their  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
ground  covered,  and  with  their  historic  sense.  Time 
having  changed  the  novelist  in  a  reaction  against  ro 
manticism,  these  authors  are  remembered  by  certain 
passages  rather  than  by  the  force  of  the  whole  work. 
Note,  for  example,  Kennedy's  oft-quoted  descrip 
tion  of  the  Revolutionary  battle  of  King's  Mountain 
in  North  Carolina. 

Save  for  the  "Life  of  Wirt"  (1849),  which  is 
an  excellent  narrative  with  many  autobiographical 
touches,  the  other  writings  of  Kennedy  are  not  dis 
tinctive.  "Rob  of  the  Bowl"  (1838)  describes 
graphically  the  ancient  capital  of  Maryland;  "The 
Annals  of  Quodlibet"  (1840)  is  indicative  of  the 
author's  political  tastes  and  of  his  realization  of  party 
weaknesses,  but  is  lacking  in  his  characteristic  charm ; 
"The  Ambrose  Letters  on  the  Rebellion"  (1865), 
read  in  connection  with  the  war  record  arranged  in 
Tuckerman's  life,  evinces  Kennedy's  strong  Union 
sympathies,  and  his  desire  to  end  the  conflict;  his 
political  and  official  papers  gathered  together  show  his 
thoroughness  and  conscientiousness  in  official  mat 
ters.  But  the  lovableness  of  the  man  himself  is 
nowhere  better  seen  than  in  his  diaries  and  letters 
upon  which  Tuckerman  amply  draws — those  varying 
lights  and  shades  that  are  a  combination  of  a  youthful 
heart  and  a  sound  brain. 

Literary  history  does  not  emphasize  Kennedy's  aid 
given  to  Morse's  telegraphic  experiments,  or,  during 


252     THE   LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

his  tenure  of  office  as  Secretary  of  the  Navy  under 
Fillmore,  his  encouragement  of  the  Kane  expedition 
(1852-3).  Of  more  importance  still,  sufficient  stress 
is  not  put  upon  his  efforts  to  improve  Baltimore  by 
the  establishment  of  a  free  library,  of  a  museum  of 
art,  and  of  free  lectures.  An  interesting  chapter 
might  alone  be  devoted  to  his  energetic  efforts  in  be 
half  of  the  Peabody  Institute,  which  serve  to  add  his 
name  to  the  list  of  Southerners,  beginning  with  James 
Blair,  who  held  a  broad  view  of  education,  which  had 
to  struggle  against  social  restrictions  and  economic 
claims.  Kennedy  was  President  of  the  Institute  in 
1870,  and  his  last  report  rings  with  that  progressive 
energy  which  we  are  to  note  in  Lanier — the  first 
Southern  research  worker  in  a  national  sense. 

In  Kennedy,  there  was  no  sectional  narrowness, 
though  in  all  he  did  he  exhibited  his  Southern  train 
ing;  his  manner,  his  bearing,  his  attitude  toward  the 
deeper  problems  of  life,  his  kindliness  and  gentle 
adaptability  in  social  circjes,  were  shaped  by  environ 
ment.  He  was  in  no  way  a  poseur  or  a  dictator ;  he 
led  by  force  of  personality. 

Yet  despite  his  wide  intercourse,  and  his  intimacy 
with  Thackeray,  Cooper,  and  Irving,  the  one  name 
that  will  help  to  identify  Kennedy  in  a  popular  way  is 
Poe\ 

In  the  case  of  Simms  and  Kennedy,  there  is  much 
in  the  lives  to  explain  the  literature;  the  conclusion  is 
again  reached  that  the  life  is  greater  than  the  product 
— a  product  which,  as  Woodberry  declares  of  Simms, 
is  "  raw  material  which  has  both  historical  and 
human  worth."  This  is  the  chief  claim  that  Na 
thaniel  Beverley  Tucker's  (1784-1851)  "The  Par 
tisan  Leader  "  has  upon  the  present,  as  indicating  by  its 
being  "secretly  printed  in  Washington  (in  the  year 
1836)  .  .  .  for  circulation  in  the  Southern 
States — but  afterwards  suppressed,"  how  clearly  the 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  253 

Rebellion  was  forecast  in  a  moment  when  Seces 
sion  leaders  were  not  strong  enough  to  rush  the  South 
into  war.  But  Tucker  wrote  with  a  purpose;  the 
italicized  portions  of  his  story,  breathing  defiance,  hate, 
and  suspicion,  clearly  indicate  that  his  novel  was  a 
text-book  of  rebellion  in  disguise,  prompted  in  the 
spirit  of  Calhoun — with  none  of  his  genius.  From 
such  a  hot-bed,  the  fire-eater  of  the  South  was  born. 

But  though  "  The  Partisan  Leader  "  looks  forward, 
its  manner  looks  backward ;  courtesy  and  ferocity  are 
curiously  blended;  the  author  attempts  at  moments 
to  codify  surface  conventions.  The  tone  of  the  book 
is  prompted  by  blind  prejudice,  and  while  it  is  natural 
•that  its  model  should  be  Cooper,  it  is  curious  that 
a  Virginia  lawyer,  a  professor  of  law,  about  the  time 
that  his  State  was  most  anxious  to  do  away  with 
the  institution  of  slavery,  should  reflect  the  violent 
temper  of  South  Carolina. 

The  book  is  an  historical  document  crudely  told, 
but  manifesting  Southern  temper  with  exceptional 
energy.  Its  author  belonged  to  a  long  line  of  literary 
devotees. 

A  study  of  the  ante-bellum  novel  will  show  it  to  be 
largely  devoid  of  original  idea,  but  full  of  the  his 
torical  and  local  quality.  The  authors,  with  the  ex 
ception  of  Simms  and  Poe,  wrote  leisurely,  and  did 
not  have  the  incentive  which  tends  to  produce  the  best 
work.  Beverley  Tucker  was  more  the  lawyer  than 
the  novelist;  William  Carruthers  (1806-1872)  was 
chiefly  the  Virginia  physician.  The  historical  field 
was  untilled  from  the  very  beginning,  and  when  the 
Civil  War  broke  forth,  the  novelist  was  still  working 
among  colonial  remains,  which  in  the  different  states 
afforded  ample  local  phases.  Wherever  the  author 
traveled,  there  he  was  sure  of  experiences  which  he 
made  the  basis  of  a  romance.  Tucker  was  judge  in 
Missouri  from  1815  till  1830;  hence  his  novel  "  George 


254    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

Balcombe."     Always  the  life  explains  the  Southern 
author. 

The  local  sense  and  the  historical  sense  were  not 
balanced  in  the  ante-bellum  novel,  but  they  were  ever 
present.  Carruthers's  "  Cavaliers  of  Virginia  "  and 
44  Knights  of  the  Horseshoe"  are  typical  examples  of 
the  average  appreciation  of  local  history  in  the  times 
of  Berkeley  and  Spotswood. 


CHAPTER   XI 

SOUTHERN  POETRY  AND  THE  CAVALIER 
SPIRIT 

IN  order  to  be  seen  advantageously,  the  verse  of  the 
ante-bellum  Southern  school  must  be  considered  in  the 
bulk,  as  being  built  upon  Southern  tradition,  and  as 
being  limited  by  the  economic,  social,  and  spiritual 
life  of  the  Southern  people.  All  that  has  been  said  of 
the  restricting  influences  upon  the  character  and  men 
tal  attitude  of  the  section,  served  to  affect  the  poetry. 
The  importance  attached  to  the  local  singer  was  a  con 
sistent  outcome  of  the  individualism  of  the  Southern 
planter — an  individualism  brought  more  prominently 
into  being  by  the  "  peculiar  institution/*  and  by  that 
territorial  isolation  which  was  encouraged  through  the 
increasing  cultivation  of  cotton.  As  the  Southern  ora 
tor  had  his  classical  models,  so  the  Southern  poet, 
passionate  and  romantic,  reflected  Goldsmith,  Byron 
and  Moore.  Southern  poetasters  sharpened  their  ap 
petites  upon  "  Lalla  Rookh "  as  keenly  as  they  did 
later  upon  "Lucile." 

Population  not  being  compact,  the  centers  of  lit 
erary  activity  worked  apart;  one  finds  compilations 
known  as  "The  Baltimore  Book,"  "The  Charleston 
Book,"  and  "  The  New  Orleans  Book,"  a  species 
which  was  as  plentiful  in  the  South  as  the  "  Garlands  " 
became  in  the  North.  The  early  period  of  our  Ameri 
can  letters  was  marked  by  efforts  to  enforce  the 
recognition  of  the  American  author.  Griswold,  Duyc- 
kinck,  Keese,  and  others  of  like  character,  attempted, 
•with  commendable  literary  autocracy,  to  measure  the 

255 


256    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

worth  of  the  product.  Their  discrimination  is  of  his 
torical  value,  and  also  of  indirect  creative  value  in 
drawing  fire  from  Poe,  one  of  our  most  interesting 
early  critics,  whose  genius  dealt  unerringly  with  his 
contemporaries,  whenever  he  could  free  himself  from 
fitful  moods. 

The  secondary  consideration  paid  to  literature  in  the 
South  was  one  of  the  reasons  for  this  lack  of  creative 
expression  which  we  find  in  the  field  of  poetry.  It 
has  been  said,  and  not  unwisely,  that  had  the  New 
England  school  been  placed  in  a  similar  environment, 
it  would  have  responded  to  conditions  in  the  same  man 
ner.  To  be  a  poet,  one  has  to  consecrate  the  better 
part  of  one's  life  to  the  task,  and  not  alone  wait  until 
the  spirit  moves  to  utter  a  personal  feeling  or  to  give 
a  personal  impression.  One  has  to  serve  apprentice 
ship,  and  this  the  Southerner,  true  to  his  economic 
training,  would  not  do,  even  in  art  matters.  When 
ever  his  mind  was  involved,  he  was  concerned  with 
practical  problems;  his  religion  did  not  disturb  him 
because  it  was  largely  a  bequeathment ;  he  was  not  free 
to  utter  his  belief  in  the  broadening  principles  of  life, 
since  the  spirit  of  slavery  overshadowed  all  activity 
around  him.  Though  he  might  give  stray  impressions 
of  the  effect  of  nature  upon  himself;  though  he  might, 
with  the  romancer's  love  of  legend,  preserve  in  verse 
a  local  incident,  there  was  little  left  for  him  to  do 
spontaneously  than  to  sing,  and  even  in  his  lyrics  he 
was  not  creative,  but  rather  reflective  of  Lovelace, 
Suckling,  and  Herrick. 

Mr.  Stedman's  theory  regarding  Poe  is  original ;  he 
claims,  in  his  "  Poets  of  America,"  that  this  man  whose 
one  mood  dominated  all  his  work,  whose  whole  being 
wa*  sensitive  to  sound,  "  caught  the  music  of  '  Anna 
bel  Lee '  and  '  Eulalie,'  if  not  their  special  quality,  from 
the  plaintive,  melodious  negro  songs  utilized  by  those 
early  writers  of  *  minstrelsy/  who  have  been  denomi- 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  257 

nated  the  only  composers  of  a  genuine  American 
school."  The  plantation  melody  shall  be  considered 
later,  the  true  song  which  was  turned  to  such  excellent 
effect  by  the  early  minstrel  impersonators  on  the 
American  stage;  tribal  chants  which  are  back  of 
Stephen  C.  Foster's  "Uncle  Ned/'  "  Massa's  in  the 
Cold,  Cold  Ground,"  and  "  Old  Black  Joe."  There 
are  three  stages  of  the  negro  minstrelsy:  the  primi 
tive  inheritance,  the  simple  song  which  has  drawn  in 
spiration  from  the  early  form,  and  the  imitation  which 
is  a  perversion,  falling  into  mawkish  sentiment.  It  is 
difficult  to  believe  unreservedly  that  Poe  was  indebted 
to  such  sources  for  his  melody;  at  least,  not  con 
sciously,  for  what  he  did  with  forethought,  found 
record  in  his  written  analyses  of  his  own  poetic  theory. 

It  is  one  of  the  graces  of  literary  criticism  to  say 
that  though  the  Southerner  may  have  lacked  control 
of  his  art  method,  he  was  at  least  a  natural  singer ;  this 
opinion  is  based  on  the  fallacy  that  the  South  was 
dominated  by  the  Cavalier  Spirit.  The  lack  of  any 
pronounced  aesthetic  excellence  during  the  so-called 
National  Era  was  due  to  the  purely  practical  trend  of 
public  life,  and  to  the  purely  rural  and  provincial  char 
acter  of  plantation  routine.  In  all  directions,  save  that 
which  involved  the  whole  safety  of  the  economic  sys 
tem,  life  flowed  in  unchangeable  channels;  the  sur 
face  was  not  ruffled  by  competition,  for  Southern  life 
had  become  an  agreeable  habit.  A  casual  literature  is 
not  lasting ;  strength — mental,  moral,  and  physical — is 
dependent  upon  activity.  The  Southern  writers,  who 
stand  above  the  mediocre  level  of  the  literary  output, 
were  those  who  had  to  turn  North  for  a  market ;  there 
they  were  subject  to  the  same  difficulties  that  con 
fronted  the  publishers  of  the  day ;  Simms  and  Kennedy 
fought  for  the  copyright  protection  as  persistently  as 
did  Cooper  and  Irving. 

From  the  historical  viewpoint,  between  the  Revolu- 


258    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

tionary  poets  and  the  larger  galaxy  of  the  Civil  War, 
very  few  balladists  rose  upon  the  wave  of  struggle  in 
1812,  or  composed  verses  on  the  annexation  of  Texas 
and  the  difficulties  with  Mexico.  The  Marylander, 
Francis  Scott  Key  (1780-1843),  met  the  occasion  at 
an  imminent  crisis  of  public  anxiety,  and  penned,  in  an 
overflow  of  patriotic  zeal,  "  The  Star-spangled  Ban 
ner,"  which  is  hallowed  because  of  its  acceptance  as 
the  national  anthem,  but  which,  notwithstanding,  is 
less  poetry  than  it  is  the  expression  of  a  large  poetic 
impulse,  and  the  accumulation  of  a  very  broad  national 
sentiment.  In  comparison  with  Randall's  "  Mary 
land,"  or  Pike's  "  Dixie,"  there  is  little  in  Key's  verses 
to  identify  them  as  Southern. 

In  fact,  one  must  be  careful  to  discriminate  between 
extraneous  creation  which  takes  color  from  events  of 
national  importance  occurring  in  the  South,  and  spon 
taneous  feeling  due  to  an  inherited  habit  of  mind,  to 
a  constitutional  observation  based  upon  close  contact 
with  environment,  and  to  an  expression  unoriginal  but 
generally  accepted  as  the  classical  form  of  poetry.  Not 
that  we  need,  even  in  the  poorest  examples  of  South 
ern  verse,  adopt  the  tone  that  the  impulse  was  counter 
feit.  If  an  anthology  were  at  hand,  dealing  with  the 
mocking-bird,  it  would  become  evident  that  here  is  a 
native  topic  for  poetic  treatment,  to  which  Audnbon, 
Meek,  Hayne,  Pike,  Lanier,  and  countless  others  bent 
their  energies.  This  similarity  of  observational  choice 
or  response  does  not  necessarily  indicate  imitation ;  the 
whole  significance  and  value  lies  in  how  far  the  true 
essence  of  the  subject  was  caught,  how  close  the  poet 
came  to  the  inevitable  word,  how  vitally  he  expressed 
his  environment,  making  it  sufficiently  worthy  to  be 
carried  outside. 

Until  the  time  of  the  school  of  Lanier,  Southern 
poetry  as  an  art  will  not  stand  the  test  of  the  highest 
comparison;  it  were  futile,  as  literary  criticism,  to  at- 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  2-59 

tempt  an  extensive  estimate  in  such  manner.  Largely 
these  writers  were  lyrists  of  one  song;  it  were  safe  to 
say  that  the  romance  and  the  passion  they  expressed 
were  nearer  Southern  temperament  than  Southern  con 
dition  ;  this  is  well  exemplified  in  Pinkney's  "  A 
Health,"  Wilde's  "  My  Life  is  Like  a  Summer  Rose," 
and  Cooke's  "  Florence  Vane."  Their  sentiment  is 
pure,  not  deep  and  lasting;  they  are  not  perfect  either 
in  conception  or  in  execution ;  they  are  so  full  of  feel 
ing  as  to  overflow  the  slender  form,  and  to  overdo  the 
grace,  the  chivalric  spirit  and  personal  application. 
In  this  respect,  Wilde  falls  short  of  the  highest  lyri 
cism,  his  spontaneity  lost  in  an  artificial  variation  of  a 
melancholy  refrain.  In  Southern  poetry,  the  unity  of 
feeling  is  scarcely  broken;  its  continuity  is  wearing; 
what  is  weak  is  the  unity  of  imagery  and  conception; 
in  the  space  of  a  lyric,  the  sweetness  ran  riot,  instead 
of  inevitably  concentrating  in  one  line  of  rich  emotion. 

Hence,  the  lyrics  mentioned  might  hardly  stand 
measurement  with  Jonson's  "  Drink  to  me  only  with 
thine  eyes,"  or  Herrick's  "  Bid  me  to  live,  and  I  will 
live,"  or  Browning's  "Evelyn  Hope."  There  is  a 
spiritual  tremor  in  the  perfection  of  lyricism  which  is 
hard  to  express  above  the  overflow  of  feeling,  and 
which  is  lacking  in  most  Southern  poetry.  Yet  such 
small  pieces  as  those  mentioned  will  have  a  place  in 
every  American  anthology  because  they  are  true, 
graceful,  easy,  and  affluent.  Such  art  can  never  be 
even  or  sustained  for  any  length  of  time;  it  is  too 
much  dependent  upon  the  variation  of  custom,  and  is 
not  anchored  to  a  spiritual  center. 

One  naturally  turns  to  Poe  as  the  largest  exponent 
of  Southern  poetry  during  this  period,  but  on  close 
examination,  this  claim  is  hardly  tenable,  since  Poe's 
genius  was  an  emotional  accident  rather  than  a  native 
product,  and  he  may  hardly  be  said  to  have  had  any 
appreciable  effect  poetically  upon  his  section,  certainly 


260    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

not  as  much  as  he  exerted  on  Verlaine  in  France.  His 
verse  haunts  by  reason  of  its  melody ;  no  variety  marks 
the  slim  volume;  only  variation  of  personal  moods, 
dependent  upon  distorted  imagination.  There  is  no 
point  of  rest  in  Poe's  poetry ;  no  locality  for  identifica 
tion  ;  it  is  all  aberration  due  to  a  morbid  reaction 
against  true  feeling  or  to  a  brooding  sense  of  a  world 
distinctly  his  own. 

Yet,  to  anyone  taking  the  trouble  to  search  through 
the  collected  works  of  Poe,  a  strong  vein  of  contempo 
raneousness  will  be  detected  in  his  writing — not  in  his 
poetry,  which  seeks  for  beauty  as  a  reality  and  which 
here  and  there  suggests  the  spirit  of  pantheism ;  not  in 
his  aesthetic  expression,  wrhich  is  indicative  of  a  pecu 
liar  passion;  but  in  the  rationale  side  of  his  poetic 
theory  and  in  his  critical  boldness  and  verity.  Not  only 
that,  but,  even  though  Poe  was  detached  from  the  soil, 
yet  a  careful  examination  will  disclose  him  as  being 
fully  aware  of  the  literary  activity  in  the  South.  Poe's 
constructive  theories  were  not  innately  born  of  sound 
convictions;  they  were  more  properly  dependent  for 
their  growth  upon  his  aggravations.  Perhaps  the  un 
moral  character  of  his  work  was  constitutional,  and  re 
sulted  in  his  attacks  upon  the  didacticism  of  Words 
worth  ;  perhaps  his  early  antagonism  to  Boston  and  his 
thorough  aloofness  from  the  New  England  tradition 
encouraged  his  dislike  of  Emerson  and  of  the  Brook 
Farm  phalanx ;  whatever  the  causes  for  his  critical  irri 
tation,  here  lay  the  defect  of  his  opinion.  His  other 
weakness  was  the  variableness  of  his  reviewing  style. 
Poe  has  been  called  an  exotic.  "The  Gold  Bug" 
has  for  its  locale,  Sullivan's  Island,  near  Charleston, 
and  the  description  is  impressionistic  rather  than 
Southern;  it  is  too  permeated  with  the  brooding  spirit 
of  imagination  to  be  any  nearer  the  actual  than  Le- 
grand's  Jupiter  was  like  a  darkey.  If,  therefore,  his 
poetry  lacked  the  warm,  external  sentiment  of  South- 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  261 

ern  verse;  if  it,  as  well  as  his  prose,  was  wanting  in 
the  luxuriant  color  of  Southern  environment,  wherein 
may  we  claim  that  Southern  influence  was  manifest? 
We  are  conscious  that  Poe  was  a  man  without  a  coun 
try;  his  contact  with  America  was  as  a  critic,  and  we 
may  further  add  that  in  his  criticism  are  to  be  found 
evidences  of  his  Southern  environment. 

Poe's  pride,  sensitiveness,  and  individualism  were 
undoubtedly  fostered  by  his  training  in  Virginia ;  had 
he  possessed  a  little  of  the  didactic  restraint  which  he 
so  fervently  despised  in  Wordsworth,  he  might  not 
have  later  lacked  the  will  which  constituted  the  large 
weakness  in  his  character.  Where  Poe  comments  on 
Southern  literature,  he  is  almost  aloof,  judging  it 
apart  from  the  culture  out  of  which  it  sprung,  but  ap 
plying  to  it  the  test  of  his  own  personal  taste.  It  is 
well  for  the  critic  to  approach  a  literary  work  upon  its 
own  merit  as  an  isolated  product ;  yet  in  this  ignorance 
of  the  local  significance,  much  of  its  vitality  is  lost. 
Slavery  is  not  entirely  a  local  institution  to  Poe;  it  is 
a  phenomenon  of  society ;  we  claim  this,  despite  the  fact 
that  in  the  Southern  Literary  Messenger,  he  refers  to 
"our"  domestic  slavery  in  a  vague  way,  thus  identify 
ing  himself  expressively  with  the  soil.  But  his  slavery 
convictions  stamp  him  unmistakably  as  of  the  South ; 
he  is  willing,  because  of  the  personal  indignation  raised 
in  him  by  abolition  attacks,  to  believe  "  that  society  in 
the  South  [considering  the  moral  relation  between  mas 
ter  and  slave]  will  derive  much  more  of  good  than  of 
evil  from  this  much-abused  and  partially-considered 
institution." 

Poe,  as  reviewer,  had  a  stereotyped  way  of  approach 
ing  a  book,  whether  prose  or  poetry,  but  he  always  ex 
pressed  faith  in  the  future  of  Southern  letters.  He  was 
more  unerring  m  his  estimate  of  style  and  in  his  psy 
chology  of  temperament  as  seen  in  his  curious  "  Au 
tography,"  than  in  his  clever  valuation  of  content; 


262    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

what  he  read  did  not  have  permanent  effect  upon  him; 
his  outward  consideration  was  never  based  upon  any 
inward  concern;  one  might  say  that  Poe  was  self-suf 
ficient.  If  he  read  a  story,  he  liked  it  upon  certain 
lines;  if  he  praised  a  poem,  it  was  because  of  its  haunt 
ing  character,  colored  by  sound.  His  knowledge  was 
always  to  be  doubted,  his  originality  to  be  admired. 

As  poets,  Simms  and  Poe  were  direct  opposites ;  we 
might  stretch  Mr.  Mabie's  opinion,  and  say  that 
Simms  possessed  the  vitality  that  Poe  needed,  while 
the  latter  was  more  the  genius  of  the  two.  In  his 
verse  activity,  Simms  was  typical  of  the  Gentleman  of 
the  Black  Stock,  who  cultivated  the  lighter  graces  and 
accomplishments  in  a  sedate  manner;  but  though  he 
was  modest  enough  to  designate  his  poetical  works  as 
"occasional  effusions,"  he  was  prolific,  and  somewhat 
disturbed  that,  as  a  poet,  he  did  not  receive  wider  rec 
ognition.  As  he  himself  declared,  his  other  labors  were 
more  deliberate  and  more  demanding  of  his  serious 
energies;  in  this  confession  he  suggests  his  poetic 
errors ;  his  verse  shows  an  untutored  carelessness  that 
marked  a  vigorous  conception  distinguishing  him  as  a 
romancer,  and  a  masculine  feeling  that  painted  in  large 
strokes  and  rough  sincerity.  His  poems  measure  per 
sonal  fancies,  emotions,  affections ;  he  was  strictly  asso 
ciative.  As  for  his  range,  he  passed  from  the  moral 
and  didactic  to  the  dramatic  and  what  he  called  the 
"  essayical " ;  when  he  touched  the  lyrical,  whatever 
delicacy  the  lines  contained  was  mixed  with  a  consti 
tutional  robustness  which  Poe  lacked  altogether,  a  lack 
which  Simms  drew  to  his  attention  in  correspondence. 

The  Southerner  regarded  poetry  as  the  natural  ex 
pression  of  any  heightened  emotion,  whether  or  not 
One  was  endowed  \vith  the  technical  talent  to  express 
it.  Much  that  Simms  preserved  of  his  verse  was 
prompted  by  this  dependence  for  inspiration  on  the 
moment,  on  the  local  occasion,  as  when,  for  instance, 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  263 

the  Charleston  regiment  in  the  Mexican  War  inspired 
the  individual  poems  in  "  Lays  of  the  Palmetto  " ; 
these  embodied  fleeting  impressions  and  momentary 
moods. 

Simms'  poetic  vehicle  often  sank  into  mere  prose, 
without  the  excellent  quality  of  good  rhythmic  prose; 
his  impulse  was  generally  of  a  higher  excellence  and 
reticence  than  his  expression ;  at  times  he  assumed  the 
gallant  air  that  betokened  the  versifier  of  camaraderie; 
again,  his  seriousness  suggested  the  gloom  of  over- 
mellow  romance.  He  was  careless  in  his  execution 
and  in  the  details  of  his  verse,  as  he  was  in  his  novels ; 
this  indifference  to  appropriateness  was  best  seen  in 
his  apparent  lack  of  feeling, for  word  values  and  sound 
variations.  Note  where  he  draws  upon  history,  how 
impatient  he  becomes  of  the  restraint  and  compression 
which  poetic  description  requires.  Of  Calhoun,  he 
says: 

His   lips   spoke   lightnings!     His  immaculate  thought, 

From   seraph  source,  divinest  fervors  caught; 

His  fiery  argument,  with  eagle  rush, 

SpelVd  mightiest  Senates  into  trembling  hush. 

This  was  one  of  Simms'  numerous  occasional  pieces; 
he  was  always  alive  to  the  event — the  return  of  a  regi 
ment,  a  theater  benefit  for  a  monument  fund,  the  dedi 
cation  of  a  cemetery.  Southern  oratory  and  poetry 
alike  marked  the  hour  and  the  minute. 

Curiously,  Simms  was  too  primitive  in  his  imagina 
tion  to  deal  much  in  the  decorativeness  of  classic  allu 
sion  ;  in  the  woods,  he  was  more  likely  to  see  the  Choc- 
taw  than  the  Greek  nymph.  His  poetry,  in  sentiment, 
in  religious  fervor,  in  imagination,  was  natural;  the 
expression  was  artificial.  His  interest  in  Shakespeare 
found  echo  in  his  verse,  but  his  large  appreciation  swal 
lowed  up  the  fine  valuation  of  detail.  Take  Simms' 
ballad,  "  'Twas  on  a  night  like  this,"  and  try  to 


264    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

span  the  gulf  between  it  and  Lorenzo's  and  Jessica's 
night  at  Belmont! 

The  variety  of  his  themes,  his  sensitive  response  to 
the  various  relations  of  life,  to  the  changes  in  seasons 
and  years  and  days,  suggest  big  ranges  of  fancy  and 
thought,  but  Simms  was  predominantly  literal  in  his 
verse.  For  this  reason,  were  it  not  for  the  inevitable 
temptation  to  compare,  it  were  useless  to  measure 
Simms  on  a  level  with  the  best;  for  as  Arnold  says: 
"If  our  words  are  to  have  any  meaning,  if  our  judg 
ments  are  to  have  any  solidity,  we  must  not  heap  that 
supreme  praise  upon  poetry  of  an  order  immeasurably 
inferior."  Yet,  Simms  invites  the  method;  by  it  we 
find  him,  along  with  a  host  of  his  contemporaries,  feel 
ing  sincerely,  but  not  clearly.  His  poem  on  "  Moral 
Change"  suggests  Wordsworth's  "  Tintern  Abbey" 
in  all  but  beautiful  appropriateness  and  reserve  of  ex 
pression  ;  his  lines  on  "  Silence,"  beginning,  "  The 
desert  hath  its  pyramid,  and  there,  Silence  is  sove 
reign,"  lack  all  the  spacious  transmutation  of  the  finite 
in  infinity,  so  well  enriching  Shelley's  "  Ozymandias  " ; 
his  "  Vasco  Nunez,"  consciously  or  otherwise,  in  its 
line,  "  Triumphant  on  a  peak  of  Darien,"  echoes 
rightly  the  classic  mistake  of  Keats  in  his  "  On  first 
looking  into  Chapman's  Homer."  Strangely  enough, 
in  his  sonnets  on  "  Despondency  and  Self-Reproach," 
which  have  the  lines : 

1  Oh,  friend,  but  thou  art  come  to  see  rae  die ! 
I  parted  from  thee  as  I  think  in  tears/ 

Simms  suggests  the  more  vital  and  vivid  treatment 
of  Browning's  "Confessions,"  only  accentuating 
thereby  the  lack  in  himself  of  the  former's  dramatic 
quality,  which  is  so  often  confounded  with  vigorous 
narrative  style. 

Altogether,  Simms  cannot  stand  Matthew  Arnold's 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  265 

"  touchstone  "  process  with  the  best ;  even  his  religious 
fervor,  containing  all  the  solidity  of  tradition,  is  lacking 
in  a  universal  vitality  that  should  escape  the  narrow 
ness  of  personal  significance.  Like  Wordsworth,  he, 
too,  had  his  ecclesiastical  sonnet  period,  as  seen  in  such 
titles  as  "Objects  Which  Influence  the  Ambitious 
Nature,"  "  Popular  Misdirection,"  "  Progress  in  De 
nial,"  "  The  Soul  in  Imaginative  Art,"  "  Recompense," 
"  Caprice  of  the  Sensibilities,"  and  musings  of  like 
character.  In  his  robustness,  in  a  certain  democratic 
enthusiasm  which  he  possessed,  Simms  might  have 
appreciated  Whitman ;  had  he  not  been  a  Southerner, 
and  contemptuous  of  the  Abolition  group  with  which 
Emerson  was  identified,  he  might  have  sympathized 
with  transcendentalism  in  its  stark  philosophy.  He 
had  all  this  potentiality,  but  lacked  the  genius  to  go  be 
yond  his  sectional  limits.  The  uses  to  which  he  put 
poetry  were  often  inappropriate;  even  his  dramas,  a 
mixture  of  melodrama  and  romantic  fustian,  of  his 
tory  and  local  politics,  indicate  how  loosely  he  con 
ceived  their  province. 

Altogether,  we  have  bulk,  proportion,  massiveness, 
an  average  excellence  of  purpose,  a  commonplace  re 
cording  of  fancies,  but  no  high,  sustained  seriousness. 
In  a  way,  Simms  \vas  a  pioneer,  and,  in  consequence, 
he  lacked  outward  delicacy  and  refinement,  often,  how 
ever,  approaching  the  verge  of  extreme  daintiness;  but 
it  was  the  daintiness  of  a  large  man  with  a  strong, 
rather  than  with  a  subtle,  stroke.  When  we  came  to 
consider  Simms  as  a  prose-writer,  we  found  the  same 
pioneer  attitude, — a  product  of  distinctively  Southern 
environment  and  tradition. 

There  was  a  large  willingness  on  the  part  of  the 
Southern  authors  to  keep  in  communication;  not  only 
through  the  medium  of  the  magazines  edited  at  vari 
ous  times  by  Poe  and  Simms,  or  through  the  coteries 
gathered  in  Augusta  by  Wilde,  and  in  Charleston 


266    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

by  Crafts,  Legare,  and  Simms;  not  only  by  travel,  ex 
emplified  in  Poe,  Simms,  Kennedy,  Legare,  Meek,  and 
others,  but  likewise  by  correspondence.  And,  to  a  cer 
tain  extent,  the  same  veneration  was  seen  in  the  poet 
ical  and  literary  circles,  as  occurred  among  orators. 
Simms  sat  in  the  midst  of  younger  devotees,  a  group 
which  included  Hayne,  Timrod,  Porcher,  and  Michel, 
and  discoursed  to  his  heart's  content,  a  prophet  to 
another  generation. 

The  career  of  Meek  is  an  excellent  example  of  the 
Southern  literary  existence  which  was  a  pleasure  and 
not  a  necessity,  and  which  was  subservient  to  activity 
along  the  lines  of  civic  usefulness.  His  rank  was  high 
as  a  lawyer,  and  he  filled  prominent  places,  as  Attor 
ney-General  of  Alabama  at  twenty-two,  and  as  Federal 
Attorney  for  the  Southern  District  of  Alabama,  a 
post  given  him  after  he  had  served,  in  1845,  as  Assist 
ant  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  His  political  career 
did  not  materially  affect  his  literary  product,  although 
his  influence  in  Alabama,  while  residing  in  Tuscaloosa 
and  in  Mobile,  afforded  him  opportunity  to  enrich  his 
historical  studies  of  the  State.  The  result  was  a  volu 
minous  manuscript,  comprising  a  history  of  Alabama, 
which  was  unfortunately  forestalled  by  Pickett's  ad 
mirable  work.  This,  however,  did  not  prevent  Meek 
from  gaining  considerable  reputation  as  an  historian 
of  the  South  and  of  the  Southwest,  a  position  we  have 
already  noted. 

Although  literature  was  a  side  stream  in  his  life, 
although  he  enjoyed  to  a  greater  extent  both  judicial 
reputation  and  the  distinction  of  having  established 
Alabama's  public  school  system,  Meek  by  innate  taste 
was  a  literary  man.  The  correspondence  between  him 
and  Simms,  brought  to  light  by  Air.  Ross,  is  illuminat 
ing.  Meek's  association  with  the  press  of  the  South 
began  early,  while  he  was  living  in  Tuscaloosa;  he 
edited  the  Flag  of  the  Union  and  the  Southron; 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  267 

then,  when  he  moved  to  Mobile,  he  became  associated 
with  the  staff  of  the  Register.  He  contributed  to  Simms' 
Magnolia,  and  watched  closely  the  literary  needs  of 
the  South.  A  deep  analysis  of  the  conditions  of  the 
day  points  to  constant  irritation  on  the  part  of  progres 
sive  Southern  men;  intellectually  they  were  held  in 
leash,  and  in  personal  intercourse  they  did  not  hesi 
tate  to  utter  complaint  whenever  their  section  failed 
to  support  them  in  their  efforts  to  develop  the  literary 
incentive.  But  there  was  no  denying  the  indisputa 
ble  fact  that  the  South  was  not  a  reading  community. 

The  man  of  letters  longed  for  close  communication. 
Meek  is  representative  of  that  literary  aloofness  which 
would  not  be  cut  off  entirely  from  the  life  he  loved. 
Amidst  the  routine  of  Washington  affairs,  he  wrote 
to  Simms,  deploring  the  ill-luck  of  missing  him  when 
he  passed  through  the  capital;  his  Bohemian  dreams, 
coupled  with  his  thirst  for  association,  overflowed  in 
warm  feeling;  this  is  not  the  tone  of  plantation  life, 
but  the  reaction : 

"  A  bottle  of  Lillary  Mousseaux  and  a  beef -steak  at 
Coleman's,"  he  said,  "  as  delicate  as  a  zephyr,  could 
have  made  a  Nox  Ambrosiana  which  Christopher 
North  might  have  envied.  In  the  '  short  hours/  I 
could  have  administered,  by  way  of  'night  cap/  a 
few  passages  from  the  Red  Eagle  [his  long  poem], 
which  would  have  sent  you  wandering  through  what 
Shelley  calls  '  the  tangled  wilderness '  of  sleep.  '  Clin 
ton  '  would  have  sung, '  Tis  said  that  absence  conquers 
love/  and  you  could  have  given  us  a  few  of  those 
'  Southern  Passages  and  Pictures/  which  Guido  or 
Petrarch  would  have  loved  to  look  upon." 

This,  then,  is  the  partial  spirit  of  culture  which  time 
and  circumstances  nipped  in  the  bud ;  the  lack  of  in 
centive  was  the  blighting  frost  which  kept  the  flower 
from  attaining  full  perfection.  Fate  likewise  seems 
to  have  turned  Poe,  the  critic,  from  the  channel  of 


268    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

great  influence  in  the  South ;  he  might  have  done  much 
to  improve  the  general  standard  of  the  product.  On 
hearing  of  a  new  literary  work  by  Simms,  Meek  sent 
him  the  hope  that  he  would  "  safely  pass  the  Poe, 
that  most  unnavigable  of  critical  rivers  for  slender 
barques;  indeed,  a  very  salt  river  of  the  most  Attic 
flavor." 

But  a  lack  of  the  critical  spirit  in  the  South  was  due 
to  a  fear  of  it,  and  to  the  fact  that  in  all  practical 
existence,  the  South  was  on  the  defensive ;  the  progres 
sive  literary  man,  as  well  as  the  wise  and  sane  states 
man,  found  benefit  in  close  touch  with  the.  North, — 
Kennedy  and  Irving,  Simms  and  Bryant,  Bancroft 
and  Meek,  who  wrote  of  his  acquaintance  in  a  tone 
measuring  his  admiration  for  the  historian,  despite 
his  "  Yankee  heart  and  Yankee  manners." 

Yet  the  critical  spirit  was  not  lacking  in  the  artists 
themselves ;  they  received  suggestions  willingly  in  cor 
respondence,  resenting  them  only  when  Northern  jour 
nals  made  public  attack.  Yet,  to  the  credit  of  the  latter, 
their  blame  was  not  generally  unjust,  while  their  praise 
was  unusually  gracious.  The  wheel  of  history  marks 
the  almost  inevitable  advance  of  civil  war  during  this 
time,  but  the  estimate  of  the  best  intellect,  North  and 
South,  indicates  a  willingness,  a  desire,  to  circumvent 
the  imminent  clanger.  The  potential  genius  of  the 
Southern  mind  could  not  flourish  in  the  soil  as  it  was 
then  furrowed ;  living  and  manners  were  alike  easy, 
due  to  the  over-luxuriance  of  climate;  thinking  was 
unnecessary  where  the  most  of  life  was  established  by 
custom ;  luxuriant  feeling  overflowed  in  careless  man 
ner  and  ceased,  not  in  the  completeness  of  thought, 
but  because  the  outward  cause  for  emotion  had  been 
removed. 

Despite  this,  the  Southern  poet,  for  example,  gave 
thought  to  the  poetic  principle ;  men  like  Poe  and 
Lanier  and  Timrod  framed  their  own  dicta,  Poe  irre- 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  269 

spective  of  Aristotle,  Lanier  in  the  light  of  the  then 
recent  science,  Timrod  prompted  by  a  closer  literary 
appreciation.  Poe's  theory  regarding  the  non-exist 
ence  of  such  a  phenomenon  as  a  long  poem,  finds  a 
similar  tone  of  personal  preference  in  Meek's  under 
valuation  of  the  sonnet,  which  he  termed  "poetry  in 
the  pillory."  Admiring  Simms'  lyrics,  he  declared  the 
sonnets  stiff,  which  undoubtedly  they  were, — not  a 
fault  of  the  form,  but  a  lack  of  proper  use  and  suffi 
cient  training.  For,  though  we  may  agree  with  Meek 
that  Wordsworth  often  wrote  dull  sonnets,  he  was  a 
very  prince  among  sonnet  writers;  coming  to  Meek's 
own  Southland,  Timrod's  practice  in  the  form  surely 
justifies  another  and  a  different  opinion.  What  is 
worth  noting,  nevertheless,  is  the  presence,  among 
these  men,  of  independent  technical  thinking,  which 
only  needed  the  proper  coordinating  of  cultural  ele 
ments  and  a  closer  contact  to  develop. 

The  Southern  literary  man  was  imbued  with  a 
strong  feeling  of  sectional  love ;  the  intercourse  which 
he  wanted  in  the  North  was  not  one  of  identification 
with  the  North.  While  this  feeling  was  partly  innate, 
it  was  further  aggravated  by  outside  under-valuation 
of  Southern  mentality;  association  provoked  in  the 
Southerner  a  fear  that  his  originality  might  smack 
somewhat  of  imitation.  Yet,  magazines  in  the  South 
failed  because  Northern  literature  was  preferred  when 
ever  literature  was  wanted.  Meek,  realizing  this,  hailed 
Simms  as  editor  of  the  Southern  Quarterly  Review, 
the  one  man,  to  his  way  of  thinking,  who  might  add 
individuality  to  a  Southern  journal,  "  without  which 
it  might  as  well  be  printed  at  Cape  Cod  as  Charleston." 
The  literary  man  chafed  under  the  constant  attention 
paid  to  landed  interest;  as  the  investments  of  the 
plantation  owners  demanded  legislation  for  the  small 
proportion  of  slaveholders,  stamping  out  for  the  time 
being  all  consideration  of  the  non-slaveholding  class, 


270    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

so  the  intellect  was  likewise  made  subservient,  in  its 
channels  of  grace  and  high  seriousness,  to  the  more 
practical  needs  of  the  moment.  Meek  was  right  in 
his  belief  that  all  the  while  Southern  politicians  were 
striving  in  Congress  for  sectional  independence  in 
commerce,  manufactures  and  politics,  the  one  neces 
sary  element  in  Southern  life  was  independence  of 
mind.  Meek  cried  out  against  the  curse  of  cotton. 

There  was  much  in  Simms  and  Meek  to  be  stamped 
as  American  in  the  primitive  sense.  True  to  the  indi 
vidualism  of  the  Gentleman  of  the  Black  Stock,  they 
grew  in  their  old  age  to  be  monopolists  of  conversa 
tion,  in  which  no  one  of  the  younger  generation  dared 
controvert  their  opinions. 

Southern  poetry  exhibits  the  pure  devotion  for  the 
simplest  aspects  of  nature;  feeling  is  prompted  by  the 
elemental  joyances  of  life;  when  freed  from  restraint, 
ethical  or  technical,  the  poet  wells  forth  from  springs 
of  native  beauty.  When  Meek  refers  to  the  mocking 
bird  as  the  "winged  Anacreon  of  the  South,"  we 
gain  a  flash  of  his  peculiar  culture,  but  the  sentiment 
which  lilts  through  his  "  Poems  of  the  South  "  is  as 
indigenous  to  the  soil  as  the  magnolia  which  scents 
his  verse.  Take  Albert  Pike's  "  Mocking-Bird," 
which  lacks  a  certain  polish,  a  certain  classic  beauty; 
it  nevertheless  has  an  enviable  quality  of  the  richest 
sincerity,  almost  pastoral  in  its  enjoyment  and  in  its 
appreciation  of  beauty.  In  the  minor  notes  which 
have  to  do  with  the  heart,  is  found  the  best  Southern 
poetry.  Wordsworth  could  not  hope  for  more  simple 
spontaneity  than  underlies  such  stanzas  in  Pike,  as 

I  cannot  love  the  man  who  doth  not  love, 
As  men  love  light,  the  song  of  happy  birds. 

If  again  we  resort  to  comparison  and  put  this  ode  "  To 
the  Mocking-Bird  "  by  the  side  of  Keats'  "  Ode  to  the 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  271 

Nightingale,"  the  former  lacks  a  certain  texture  pos 
sessed  by  the  latter;  it  does  not  give  the  spirit  of  the 
bird,  though  it  tells  of  the  bird's  existence.  South 
ern  poetry  of  this  period  wants  the  vitality  of  purpose 
beneath  its  beauty ;  it  confounds  the  unity  of  spiritual 
meaning  with  the  sensitive  response  of  feeling.  But 
here  again  we  find  interests  divided ;  Pike  was  a  law 
yer  and  a  soldier,  incidentally  a  poet,  though  later  in 
life  he  gave  himself  seriously  to  literature. 

Certain  characteristics  mark  the  individual  South 
ern  poet.  There  was  Philip  Pendleton  Cooke,  whose 
name  connects  John  Esten  Cooke  with  John  P.  Ken 
nedy,  and  whose  "  fever-fits  of  composition  "  produced 
some  notable  lyrics,  and  whose  love  for  hunting  in  the 
Shenandoah  Valley  gave  him  as  enviable  a  reputation 
as  the  Knights  of  the  Horse-Shoe  possessed.  Willis 
speaks  of  his  "  delicious  bundle  of  heart-touching  pas 
sages,  peculiar  and  invaluable  more  especially  to  lov 
ers,  whose  sweetest  and  best  interpreter  Pinkney  was. 
Every  man  or  woman  who  has  occasion  to  embroider 
a  love-letter  with  the  very  essence-flowers  of  passion 
ate  verse,  should  pay  a  shilling  for  Pinkney's  Poems." 
There  was  M.  B.  Lamar,  whose  active  career  in  the 
history  of  Texas  did  not  prevent  him  from  writing 
what  Professor  Trent  calls  "the  most  extraordinary 
repository  of  extempore  effusions  addressed  by  a  gal 
lant  gentleman  to  lovely  ladies  to  be  found  in  the 
whole  range  of  our  literature."  Legare,  Wallis,  and 
Mrs.  Welby,  who  was  fortunate  in  Poe's  praise, — these 
are  a  few  of  the  worthy  singers  whose  record,  liter- 
arily,  is  of  small  individual  importance.  Legare's 
prose,  dull  though  it  be,,  will  better  gauge  his  worth, 
while  on  the  other  hand,  Wilde's  Italian  studies  can 
not  overcloud  his  lyricism.  Pinkney's  genius  was 
handicapped  by  poverty  and  by  a  pessimism  which  is 
not  characteristic  of  the  South.  Griswold  attacked 
his  "  prostitution  of  true  poetical  genius  to  un- 


272    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

worthy  purposes."  Some  of  his  poetry  was  printed 
anonymously,  and  also  was  rapidly  written. 

A  mere  cataloguing  of  names  will  not  suffice  our 
purpose ;  we  are  in  search  of  conditions,  and  can  afford 
to  lose  the  poets  in  a  general  survey.  They  were  all 
lyrists,  most  of  them  imitators  in  feeling  of  Scott  or 
Byron,  or  Moore,  some  of  them  attempting  exotic 
subjects  in  which  they  failed.  They  were  none  of 
them  students  in  a  deep  sense;  Wilde  with  his  Tasso 
could  not  be  put  on  the  same  plane  as  Lanier  in  this 
respect.  While  there  is  a  sin  in  mediocrity,  one  must 
not  forget  to  value  the  initial  impulse.  Pike,  O'Hara, 
and  others,  rose  to  occasions  as  balladists;  their  im 
mortality  is  bound  up  as  part  of  the  epic  swing  of  in 
ternecine  warfare.  The  critic,  in  his  sedulous  desire 
to  swell  the  bulk  of  Southern  literature,  might  turn,  to 
Allston  and  Prentice,  with  some  rightful  claim  to  ter 
ritorial  inclusion,  but  the  spirit  of  what  we  seek  does 
not  make  it  necessary. 

These  casual  literary  devotees  touched  the  whole 
realm  of  poetry ;  their  drama  was  bombastic,  inactive, 
imitative;  their  philosophy  not  deeply  understood, 
though  their  morality  was  governed  by  a  set  idea  of 
social  relationship.  It  was  a  grace  for  any  member 
of  a  well-founded  family  to  do  a  sentiment  to  a  rare 
turn;  but  to  cultivate  the  talent  seriously  was  a  dis 
grace.  Much  was  written  of  foreign  caste,  after  the 
manner  of  Byron;  William  Crafts,  of  Charleston, 
modeled  "The  Raciads  "  on  Pope.  The  wit  of  the 
court-room  crept  into  verse  whenever  the  statesman 
changed  his  oratory  for  song,  or  his  brief  for  a  manu 
script;  were  he  a  lawyer,  his  poetry  smacked  of  his 
tory  ;  were  he  a  priest,  naturally  he  turned  to  devotional 
subjects.  Wherever  there  was  an  occasion  and  a 
poet,  there  was  usually  an  ode;  time  and  place  were 
undoubtedly  the  prime  incentives  for  the  local  singer. 
As  a  Gentleman  of  the  Black  Stock,  the  poet,  turned 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  273 

dramatist,  harked  back  to  ancient  days,  or  imitated 
Sheridan  Knowles,  as  in  the  case  of  Isaac  Harby.  En 
couraged  by  friends,  a  casual  writer  would  sweep  to 
gether  his  scraps  in  a  wretchedly  printed  and  bound 
booklet,  whose  paper,  like  the  poems  thereon,  dried  up 
as  pressed  flowers,  indicative  of  some  personal  and  far 
away  gratification.  The  expanse  of  country,  the 
opening  of  the  Far  West,  the  settling  of  the  Mexican 
claim,  were  sufficient  to  suggest  an  ample  field  for 
legend  and  imagination;  the  latter  quality  was  weak, 
though  the  flesh  was  willing.  The  Catholic  priest, 
the  Quaker,  the  Creole,  the  emigrant,  the  soldier,  the 
law-maker,  all  turned  poets,  because  all  of  them  were 
endowed  with  the  gift  of  feeling — a  feeling  which 
some  call  the  Chivalric  Spirit. 

This  condition  was  not  typical  of  the  South  alone, 
but  it  was  the  general  condition  under  which  poetry 
was  written  in  the  South ;  the  unfortunate  circum 
stance  was  that  those  who  cultivated  the  Muse  lacked 
a  rich  sense  of  humor.  Though  they  were  full  of 
daring  and  ambition,  sometimes  outstretching  Milton 
in  their  reach,  if  they  touched  religion,  it  was  with  a 
feeling  that  from  them  must  come  the  brooding  sense 
of  ages;  they  sought  to  impose  upon  you  their  philos 
ophy,  and  they  did  so  obscurely.  With  their  local  im 
portance,  they  sought  the  larger  world  in  the  same 
provincial  manner  as  they  approached  their  local  and 
"  generous  public." 

In  prefaces,  these  poets  made  excuses  for  their  un- 
fitness,  but  this  was  merely  a  stereotyped  modesty  that 
was  not  indicative  of  any  realization  of  their  medioc 
rity;  they  were  self-satisfied  in  their  environment.  I 
find  one  singer  of  Petersburg  writing,  "  Born  and 
reared  in  the  Old  Dominion,  I  wish  never  to  go  per 
manently  beyond  its  boundaries.  Breathing  with  de 
light  its  mild  salubrious  atmosphere,  I  wish  to  inhale 
that  of  no  other  clime.  Treading  on  its  hallowed  soil 


274    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

in  life,  let  me  rest  beneath  it  in  death/'  Out  of  their 
obscurity  they  would  often  come  with  the  reputation 
of  being  the  first  to  immortalize  a  locality  in  song; 
the  one  distinction  which  lay  in  such  claim — usually 
accompanied  also  by  the  statement  that  without  classi 
cal  pretensions,  the  author  was  merely  a  common  man, 
—was  to  be  found  in  the  lyric  simplicity,  which,  despite 
the  conscious  and  awkward  embellishment,  contained  a 
certain  democratic  feeling. 

These  minor  singers  were  intrepid,  often  rough; 
they  sometimes  boasted  of  common-sense  above  deli 
cacy  and  ornament  and  learning,  qualities  which  were 
usually  identified  with  the  aristocracy.  Poetry  to 
some  was  merely  a  commentary,  to  others  merely  a 
fleeting  song.  Whatever  they  did  was  conceived  as 
original,  however  imitative  of  what  they  admired  most. 
They  had  the  sad  consolation  of  knowing  that  if  the 
world  pronounced  them  lacking  in  imagination,  dull 
and  long-winded  in  execution,  there  were  others  duller 
and  more  lacking.  To  most,  poetry  was  a  trick,  and 
the  sheets  had  to  be  dashed  aside,  denoting  inspiration. 
The  chief  excuse  for  weakness  was  that  no  time  was 
allowed  by  clamoring  friends  for  that  polish  which 
would  have  given  the  rough-hewn  gems  a  greater 
value.  They  went  through  locality  with  a  lyre  strung 
on  their  hearts ;  undoubtedly  they  were  humble  in  their 
approach,  in  their  reverence,  in  their  chivalry.  Occa 
sionally,  turning  their  music  to  practical  ends,  even  as 
Lowell  did  in  his  "  Biglow  Papers,"  they  sang  in  the 
spirit  of  political  inclination,  but  always  with  senti 
ment  uppermost  and  with  no  abiding  humor.  The 
Literary  Messenger  did  much  to  encourage  the  minor 
poets,  and  its  pages  were  the  sepulcher  of  many  an  in 
glorious  Milton.  Poe,  likewise,  on  his  own  initiative, 
was  prone  to  overpraise  the  inferior  galaxy,  whenever 
their  vocabulary  pleased  his  mournful  mood. 

It  was  the  natural  impulse  divorced  from  the  art 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  275 

reserve  which  hurt  Southern  poetry.  The  Gentleman 
of  the  Black  Stock  turned  to  literature  for  certain 
quiet  enjoyment,  but  though  he  considered  the  highest 
art  to.  be  created  only  under  propitious  circumstances 
of  quiet  and  repose,  nevertheless,  active  service  on  the 
field  and  in  public  administration  did  not  prevent  him 
from  giving  expression  to  his  feeling,  his  emotion,  his 
passion.  These,  with  his  quick  eye  for  passing  beauty, 
served  him  instead  of  rich  imagination.  There  are 
hosts  of  such  singers,  North  and  South,  but  conditions, 
social,  economic,  and  political,  made  the  average 
Southern  poetry  fall  far  below  the  standard  of  the 
New  England  school.  There  was  a  democratic  im 
pulse,  even  in  Lanier,  but  never  a  Whitman;  there 
was  a  philosophic  questioning,  but  never  an  Emerson ; 
there  was  a  native  lyricism,  but  never  a  Bryant  or 
a  Longfellow.  Had  society  been  organized  differ 
ently,  the  Southern  poetry  of  this  period  would  have 
been  different. 


CHAPTER  XII 

A   SOUTHERN    MYSTERY 

AN  AUTHOR  WITH  AND  WITHOUT  A  COUNTRY:  POE 

IF  it  should  be  asked,  what  is  Poe's  claim  to  be  called 
either  Southern  or  American?  it  might  well  be  stated 
that  no  poet,  no  fiction  writer,  has  less  claim  to  the 
title  than  he.  His  imaginative  faculty  was  not  native 
to  the  soil ;  even  as  a  book  reviewer,  he  judged  by  old- 
world  standards.  Nor  was  Poe  a  man  of  the  world, 
though  he  was  constantly  in  it;  he  was  not  alive  to 
the  public  issues  of  the.  day.  His  critical  work  was 
the  only  part  of  his  writing  that  showed  any  great 
interest  in  the  growth  of  something  American.  He 
did  not  possess  the  love  of  country  that  so  often 
prompted  Cooper  and  Hawthorne;  he  was  relentless 
in  his  attacks  upon  transcendentalism  as  typified  in 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  who  was  one  of  our  rare  origi 
nal  philosophers.  As  far  as  his  Southern  inclinations 
were  concerned,  he  had  no  picturesque  appreciation  of 
local  scene,  such  as  permeates  the  "  Border  Tales  "  of 
Simms,  nor  any  of  the  healthy  realization  of  the  dis 
tinguishing  marks  of  Southern  life,  such  as  stamped 
the  work  of  Kennedy.  But  he  had  more  of  the  inevi 
table  art  of  expression. 

When  we  reach  bed-rock,  we  find  that  Poe  is  an 
isolated  figure,  and  for  that  reason  he  is  the  best  known 
American  author  abroad;  but  there  is  another  and  a 
far  deeper  reason  for  this.  Poe's  temperament  was 
of  foreign  cast.  In  the  forty-nine  years  of  his  life, — 

276 


' 


EDGAR    ALLAN    POE. 

From  painting  by  Samuel  S.  Osgood,  owned  by  the  New  York 
Historical  Society. 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  277 

perhaps,  to  be  more  exact,  counting  from  his  university 
days, — Poe's  nature  did  not  grow  larger ;  he  was  born 
old;  his  humor  was  dark  at  the  beginning,  and  it  be 
came  more  intensified  with  the  advance  of  years. 
Buffeted  from  city  to  city,  from  office  to  office,  Poe 
was  not  a  humanitarian;  meeting  man  after  man,  and 
woman  after  woman,  Poe  was  not  a  socialist;  he  was 
an  individualist.  And  though  he  infused  into  Ameri 
can  literature  one  of  the  few  streams  of  originality  it 
may  lay  claim  to,  yet  Poe  was  not  a  citizen, — he  was 
purely  an  artist, _a  lover  of  the  beautiful.  For  him 
there  was  even  beauty  in  the  grotesque. 

Still,  the  stock  from  which  he  sprung  was  such  as 
to  foster  patriotic  feelings.  When  John  Poe  came  to 
America  in  1745,  it  was  said  that  Norman-French 
blood  flowed  in  his  veins,  as  well  as  Irish.  No  braver 
soldier  fought  in  the  Revolutionary  War  than  David 
Poe,  Edgar's  grandfather,  who  attained  the  rank  of 
assistant  quartermaster-general.  History  mentions 
him  again  upon  the  battle-field  in  1814,  despite  his 
seventy-two  years,  fighting  with  all  the  ardor  of  patri 
otic  pride.  If  biographers  are  to  emphasize  the  influ 
ence  of  heredity  upon  character,  here  is  a  point  in  ques 
tion:  one  of  the  most  worthy  periods  of  Edgar  Allan 
Poe's  life  was  that  in  which  he  served  as  a  private  in 
the  United  States  Army.  Once  he  was  captain  in  a 
boys'  military  company,  when  Lafayette  visited  Rich 
mond  ;  perhaps  he  heard  the  great  Frenchman  reiterate 
what  he  had  feelingly  uttered  over  David  Poe's  grave : 
"Here  rests  a  noble  heart."  Later  on,  and  after  his 
army  experience,  Poe  was  to  enter  West  Point,  yet 
despite  all  this,  he  was  totally  un-American,  though 
possessing  the  pride  of  the  Southern  aristocrat. 

Edgar  Poe,  the  son  of  strolling  players,  was  born  in 
Boston,  on  January  19,  1809,  but  always  contended: 
"  I  am  a  Virginian.  At  least  I  call  myself  one,  for  I 
have  resided  all  my  life,  until  within  the  last  few 


278    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

years,  in  Richmond."  He  had  a  dislike  for  Boston, 
even  though  on  the  back  of  a  picture  painted  by  his 
mother  were  written  the  words:  "For  my  little  son 
Edgar,  who  should  ever  love  Boston,  the  place  of  his 
birth,  and  where  his  mother  found  her  best  and  most 
sympathetic  friends." 

The  boy's  father  passes  as  a  shadowy  figure  through 
the  narrative  of  Mrs.  Poe's  precarious  life  as  an  actress 
and  as  a  mother.  In  dire  want  she  brought  her  children 
into  the  world,  and  finally  succumbed  to  the  constant 
struggle  which  left  her  weak  in  health  and  destitute. 
She  died  in  want,  an  object  of  public  appeal  and  char 
ity,  and  her  children  were  handed  over  to  mere 
acquaintances.  It  was  thus  that  Edgar  came  to  live 
with  Mr.  Allan,,  whose  wife  had  taken  a  fancy  to  the 
boy. 

After  Poe's  early  education  in  the  private  schools 
of  Richmond,  business  took  Mr.  Allan,  his  foster- 
father,  to  London,  and  he  remained  there  for  five 
years.  With  him  went  his  wife,  her  sister,  and  little 
Edgar,  who  was  placed  at  Manor  House  School,  Stoke- 
Newington,  under  one  Master  Bransby.  "  William 
Wilson  "  contains  reminiscences  of  this  time. 

The  school  was  situated  in  an  historic  part  of  the 
country,  and  legends  worked  upon  Poe's  fancy;  his 
days  were  regulated  by  the  strictness  of  the  English 
educational  system.  It  is  more  often  that  we  think 
of  Poe  hungering  wistfully  for  a  mother's  love,  than 
living  the  healthy  life  of  a  growing  boy.  However, 
on  his  return  to  Richmond,  in  1820,  Poe  began  to  de 
velop  into  a  leader  among  his  playmates;  he  was  an 
athlete  of  no  mean  prowess. 

Nevertheless,  there  was  something  lacking  in  the 
boy's  life;  it  ate  into  his  nature,  as  acid  bites  into 
zinc.  His  great  pride  hurt  beneath  the  continued 
taunts  of  his  companions;  they  knew  that  the  orphan 
was  housed  by  Allan ;  this  circumstance  marked  him  at 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  279 

once  as  someone  without  a  home.  Critics  have  tried 
to  deprive  him  of  friends,  but  Poe  had  them,  for  his 
manner  was  attractive,  even  though  his  confidence  was 
hard  to  obtain.  One  day,  Poe  went  home  with  Stan- 
nard,  a  school  fellow,  and  there  met  Mrs.  Stannard, 
who  spoke  kindly  to  him,  and  showed  soft  and  win 
ning  charm  toward  him.  Thereupon  Poe  loved  her 
with  a  youthful  love  that  was  as  intense  as  it  was  short. 
She  died  in  1824,  and  the  boy's  grief  swept  over  him 
in  a  perfect  storm ;  he  was  only  content  when  he  lay  be 
side  her  grave  during  the  day,  and  sometimes  through 
the  long  hours  of  the  night.  Afterwards,  his  grief 
clung  to  him  as  deep  memories  and  sad  memories  al 
ways  cling,  and  the  impressions  recurred  again  and 
again  in  his  writing.  Jane  Stith  Stannard  was  called 
"  Helen  "  by  Poe ;  he  did  not  care  for  the  other  name, 
and  with  that  imperious  independence  which  he  always 
showed,  he  changed  it  to  his  liking,  and  he  sang  of  her 
in  "  To  Helen,"  "  Lenore,"  "  Annabel  Lee,"  and  "  Ula- 
lume,"  poems  characterized  by  their  haunting  melody. 
Poe's  name  was  entered  upon  the  matriculation 
books  at  the  University  of  Virginia,  on  February  14, 
1826;  his  courses  were  all  in  the  School  of  Ancient 
and  Modern  Languages.  He  was  a  student  of  retent 
ive  memory  rather  than  of  deep  application ;  both  here 
and  at  West  Point,  his  associates  tell  how  he  would 
read  over  his  lesson  rapidly  and  for  the  first  time, 
just  before  being  called.  Though  he  drank  but  little, 
with  considerable  drinking  among  the  students  around 
him,  he  was  slowly  drawn  into  the  whirl  of  gambling 
that  flourished  in  its  every  form.  Conditions  in  the 
university  became  so  deplorable  that  the  faculty  ar 
ranged  with  the  civil  authorities  to  check  the  evil.  A 
sheriff  entered  the  university  one  morning,  ready  to  do 
his  business  and  make  arrests ;  he  appeared  before  an 
open  doorway ;  there  was  a  stampede,  and  Poe  was  the 
leader.  Through  windows  the  wrong-doers  made 


280    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

their  escape,  and  rushed  on  their  way  to  the  Ragged 
Mountains  near  by,  where,  some  say,  they  remained 
three  days  in  hiding. 

They  called  him  "  Gaffy  "  Poe  at  the  university,  and 
it  came  about  in  this  way:  He  had  written  a  story, 
which  especially  pleased  him,  and  so  he  invited  a  num 
ber  of  his  fellow-students  one  evening  to  hear  it  in 
his  room.  This  was  a  rare  treat  to  outsiders,  for 
Poe  was  never  free  with  his  confidence;  they  gathered 
around,  while  the  young  author  read  them  the  piece. 
The  hero's  name  was  "  Gaffy,"  and  it  was  "  Gaffy  " 
this  and  "Gaffy"  that,  so  often,  the  fellows  began 
to  smile,  and  then  someone  suggested  that  it  might 
be  well  to  eliminate  a  few  of  the  "  Gaffys."  Sensitive 
as  Poe  was,  his  face  flushed  with  anger — the  still  pas 
sion  that  produces  calm  action ;  he  crumpled  the  leaves 
of  his  manuscript  and  threw  them  without  a  word  into 
the  fire.  "  Good-night,  Gaffy,"  greeted  him  on  every 
side,  as  Poe  dismissed  his  select  audience.  He  stood 
there  stung,  as  he  was  ever,  even  by  friendly  criticism. 

Those  were  the  days  when  the  social  atmosphere  of 
the  university  was  not  what  it  should  have  been ;  when 
rich  young  men  came  with  their  retinues  of  servants, 
and  spent  more  time  over  wine  and  cards  than  at  lec 
tures.  Professors  were  ordered  to  break  down  doors 
if  they  became  at  all  suspicious  of  what  was  going  on 
in  the  students'  rooms.  This  was  the  very  worst  life 
for  Poe  to  lead.  He  was  tempted  on  every  hand. 
\Yhen  he  returned  to  Richmond  on  December  15,  1826, 
with  a  good  record  as  far  as  his  standing  in  Latin 
and  French  was  concerned,  Poe's  debts  amounted  to 
$2500.  This  was  sufficient  cause  to  draw  down  upon 
him  the  wrath  of  Allan,  who  refused  to  pay  them,  and 
took  him  away  from  the  university. 

In  1827,  Poe  went  to  Boston,  where  he  placed  a 
small  manuscript,  "Tamerlane  and  Other  Poems," 
with  a  young  printer,  Thomas,  who  never  in  after  years 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  281 

was  able  to  associate  Poe  with  the  youth  whose 
maiden  volume  he  had  issued.  This  leads  us  to  believe 
that  Edgar  was  then  using  an  assumed  name.  The 
poems  themselves  were  marked  by  a  certain  pride  and 
love  of  beauty  that  were  to  grow  in  intensity. 

The  immediate  necessity  for  money  made  him  enlist 
while  in  Boston,  as  private  Edgar  A.  Perry,  in  the 
United  States  Army,  May  26,  1827.  He  added 
two  years  to  his  age  in  order  to  comply  with  the  regu 
lations,  even  as  later  he  was  to  take  away  two  years  so 
as  to  be  within  the  age  limit  required  to  enter  West 
Point.  During  this  period  he  won  for  himself  a  cred 
itable  position.  From  Fort  Independence,  he  was 
transferred  South  to  Fort  Moultrie,  Charleston,  and 
thence  to  Fortress  Monroe,  Virginia,  where,  on  Janu 
ary  i,  1829,  he  was  promoted  from  clerk  and  assistant 
in  the  commissariat  department,  to  be  sergeant-major, 
a  rank  obtainable  only  through  merit.  His  fellow- 
officers  liked  him,  and  they  suggested  to  him  the  possi 
bility  of  entering  West  Point,  where  they  were  sure 
he  would  have  further  opportunity,  after  a  time,  of 
receiving  rapid  promotion.  They  all  furnished  him 
with  letters. 

Mrs.  Allan  died  on  February  28,  1829.  When  Ed 
gar  returned  to  Richmond  with  the  West  Point  plan 
in  his  mind,  Allan  aided  him  in  his  efforts  to  resign 
from  the  army  by  securing  a  substitute  for  him.  This 
action  was  not  disinterested  on  Allan's  part ;  he  wished 
to  get  Poe  safely  out  of  the  way,  for  he  was  about 
to  marry  again.  This  fact  upset  all  of  Poe's  visions 
regarding  a  rich  inheritance.  Allan  wrote  to  the 
authorities,  when  he  recommended  Poe  for  an  appoint 
ment  to  West  Point :  "  Frankly  do  I  declare  that  he 
is  no  relation  to  me  whatever." 

When  the  appointment  was  finally  secured,  through 
the  influence  of  Senator  Ellis,  a  brother  of  Allan's 
partner,  Poe  was  not  in  a  humor  to  reap  its  advantages 


282     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

Already  he  had  launched  into  literature ;  his  taste  had 
been  whetted. 

At  the  close  of  1829,  "Al  Aaraaf,  Tamerlane,  and 
Minor  Poems  "  was  issued, — a  volume,  says  Profes 
sor  Woodberry,  which  showed  Poe's  desire  "  to  fix  the 
evanescent,  to  perceive  the  supersensual." 

Poe's  record  at  West  Point  was  neither  long  nor 
brilliant.  He  was  court-martialed  on  January  5,  1831, 
and  dismissed  "  for  disobedience  to  orders  and  absence 
from  roll-calls,  guard  duty,  and  class  work."  On  the 
morning  of  March  7,  he  went  into  the  world  with 
twelve  cents  in  his  pocket.  This  was  the  beginning  of 
his  continuous  struggle  against  poverty. 

Many  are  the  wild  vagaries  accredited  to  the  Poe  of 
this  period :  the  stories  about  his  joining  the  Greeks, 
and  about  his  falling  into  difficulties  in  St.  Petersburg 
in  the  year  previous  to  his  West  Point  entrance.  Then 
there  were  the  imaginary  adventures  in  Egypt  and 
Arabia,  and  Poe's  severe  illness  in  France,  where  he 
was  nursed  to  life  by  a  lady  who  defrayed  all  the  ex 
penses.  There  is  some  mention  of  his  writing  a  novel, 
"The  Life  of  an  Artist  at  Home  and  Abroad,"  which 
cannot  be  traced.  But  in  the  legendary  years  from 
1827,  certain  facts  would  discredit  any  of  these  roman 
tic  adventures.  No  doubt  Poe  invented  some  of  the 
stories  to  conceal  his  whereabouts  from  Allan. 

The  date  which  brings  us  back  to  sure  footing  is  the 
summer  of  1833,  ^vnen  ne  was  awarded  the  one-hun 
dred-dollar  prize  offered  by  Wilmer's  Baltimore  Visi 
tor  for  the  best  short  story.  This  piece  of  fortune  led 
to  his  friendship  with  John  P.  Kennedy,  who  acted  as 
one  of  the  judges  in  the  contest.  "The  MS.  found 
in  a  Bottle  "  was  the  particular  story  out  of  "  Tales  of 
a  Folio  "  selected  for  publication,  though  all  the  stories 
were  of  striking  interest,  and  were  soon  put  in  the 
hands  of  a  publisher.  Curiously  enough,  the  judges 
had  also  selected  a  poem  by  Poe,  for  another  prize, 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  283 

when  it  was  decided  to  debar  him  on  account  of  his 
success  in  prose. 

The  direst  poverty  was  upon  Poe;  when  he  called 
on  his  new-made  friends,  he  was  shabby  in  appearance, 
though  neat  in  his*  Byron  collar  and  black  stock. 
Already  the  sinister  look  was  descending  upon  him; 
his  smile  was  austere,  and  he  was  never  heard  to  laugh. 
He  was  living  with  his  aunt  and  little  Virginia  at  the 
time.  Asked  to  dine  with  Kennedy,  he  was  obliged 
to  write  his  host  in  a  vein  which  must  have  acted  as 
gall  upon  his  pride :  "  I  cannot  come,"  runs  the  note, 
"  for  reasons  of  the  most  humiliating  nature — my  per 
sonal  appearance.  You  may  imagine  my  mortifi 
cation  in  making  this  disclosure  to  you,  but  it  is  neces 
sary." 

The  next  sixteen  years — a  period  embracing  the 
whole  of  Poe's  literary  activity — may  be  definitely 
described.  In  his  literary  development  there  was  a 
constant  growth  in  style  and  technique;  but,  as  stated 
before,  in  his  mental  activity  and  in  his  moral  passion, 
Poe's  individuality — always  overshadowed — was  the 
product  of  accretion,  rather  than  of  expansion.  His 
was  a  brooding  temperament:  he  was  never  able  to 
throw  off  the  grudge  he  bore  the  world. 

We  must  pause  to  note  Poe's  marriage,  despite  the 
opposition  of  his  cousin,  Neilson  Poe,  with  the  child, 
Virginia  Clemm,  in  1834.  Impecunious  as  he  was,  yet 
Poe  conceived  about  this  time  an  idea  which  never  de 
serted  him  to  the  day  of  his  death  :  the  establishment  of 
a  "  fearless,  independent,  and  sternly  just "  literary 
journal.  Fortunate  it  was  for  him,  however,  that  T.  W. 
White,  owner  of  the  Southern  Literary  Messenger, 
which  was  published  in  Richmond,  Va.,  asked  him  to 
come  to  that  city  to  do  editorial  work.  For  a  time  it 
looked  as  though  Poe  was  on  a  fair  road  to  prosperity. 
Certainly  he  associated  himself  with  a  journal  whose 
solid  content,  even  if  precarious  existence,  added  some 


284    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

luster  to  Southern  literary  activity,  as  we  have  already 
shown. 

Perhaps  the  final  break  with  White  was  due  to  Poe's 
drinking.  "  No  man  is  safe,"  wrote  White  to  him,  in 
September,  1835,  "  that  drinks  before  breakfast.  No 
man  can  do  so  and  attend  to  business  properly." 
Which  reminds  one  of  Lamb's  letter  the  day  after  the 

failure  of  "  Mr.  H ."  Smoky  dramatists,  he  wrote, 

made  smoky  farces. 

Certainly  the  rupture  was  not  due  to  Poe's  laxity  in 
work.  He  wras  faithful  in  his  duties,  and  contributed 
many  stories  to  the  different  numbers  of  the  maga 
zine.  But  in  the  midst  of  it  all,  he  began  his  pro 
pensity  for  borrowing ;  at  times  he  fell  into  the  lowest 
ebb  of  spirits.  "  I  am  wretched,"  he  said  to  Kennedy, 
"  and  know  not  why.  Console  me, — for  you  can. 
But  let  it  be  quickly,  or  it  will  be  too  late." 

Poe's  association  with  the  magazine  resulted  in  an 
increase  in  circulation  from  seven  hundred  to  five  thou 
sand.  Toward  White,  who  was  a  man  of  kind  heart, 
and  who  never  turned  against  his  unfortunate  editor, 
Poe  was  always  punctilious;  but  he  realized  that  the 
proprietor  of  the  Messenger  was  a  man  of  little  or  no 
culture.  White,  on  his  part,  appreciated  the  full  worth 
of  Poe. 

As  a  master  of  the  short  story,  the  young  man  was 
contributing  some  of  his  future  classics,  such  as  "  Bere 
nice,"  "  Morella,"  and  "  The  Assignation."  As  a  poet, 
the  first  draft  of  "Israfel"  was  being  printed,  to 
gether  with  pieces  from  his  1827,  1829,  and  1831 
volumes.  Poe  has  been  accused  of  using  his  old  mate 
rial  over  and  over  again;  if  so,  each  reappearance 
meant  an  improvement  in  wording  and  in  form.  As 
a  critic,  he  was  beginning  that  assertive  independence 
which  was  to  make  his  views  potent,  and  to  win  for 
himself  enemies  among  his  contemporaries,  whom  he 
fearlessly  considered. 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  285 

In  1837,  the  Poes  moved  to  New  York  and  then  to 
Philadelphia,  where  began  Edgar's  association  with 
W.  E.  Burton,  the  actor,  who  owned  The  Gentleman's 
Magazine.  Here  it  was,  as  Professor  Harrison  avers, 
that  Poe  met  his  good  and  his  evil  angel — George  R. 
Graham,  who  was  ever  his  friend,  and  Rufus  Wilmot 
Griswold,  who  afterwards  became  the  legal  executor 
of  the  poet,  writing  a  biography  that  villified  the  dead 
man,  and  willfully  distorted  facts. 

The  year  1839  saw  the  publication  of  "The  Con- 
chologist's  First  Book  " — a  compilation,  a  paraphrase 
of  a  standard  work, — anything  but  an  original  study, 
yet  Poe  allowed  his  name  to  appear  on  the  title-page 
as  author.  More  important  still  was  the  issue  of 
"  Tales  of  the  Grotesque  and  Arabesque,"  containing 
the  high-water  mark  of  his  art.  "Ligeia,"  with  the 
same  theme  as  "  Morella,"  and  "  The  Fall  of  the  House 
of  Usher,"  similar  to  "  Berenice,"  are  the  two  tales 
which  Professor  Woodberry  claims  "  deserve  more  at 
tention  in  that  they  are  in  Poe's  prose  what  '  The 
Raven '  and  'Ulalume'  are  in  his  poetry,  the  richest  of 
his  imaginative  work."  Poe's  wife  was  the  basis  for 
his  most  ethereal  heroines ;  so,  too,  did  he  paint  him 
self,  most  notably  in  the  description  of  Roderick 
Usher: 

"The  character  of  his  face  had  been  at  all  times 
remarkable.  A.  cadaverousness  of  complexion;  an 
eye,  large,  liquid,  and  luminous  beyond  comparison; 
lips  somewhat  thin  and  very  pallid,  but  of  a  surpassing 
beautiful  curve;  a  nose  of  a  delicate  Hebrew  model, 
but  with  a  breadth  of  nostril  unusual  in  similar  forma 
tions;  a  finely  molded  chin,  speaking,  in  its  want  of 
prominence,  of  a  want  of  moral  energy ;  hair  of  a  more 
than  web-like  softness  and  tenuity:  these  features, 
with  an  inordinate  expansion  of  the  temple,  made  up 
altogether  a  countenance  not  easily  to  be  forgotten." 

Poe's  association  with  Burton  was  a  stormy  one;  it 


286    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

ended  in  a  mutual  misunderstanding.  The  actor, 
wanting  money  for  his  theatrical  enterprises,  made 
business  overtures  to  Graham,  who  finally  bought  the 
magazine.  This  was  done,  so  Poe  said,  without  his 
knowledge.  On  the  other  hand,  Poe,  ever  anxious  to 
establish  that  literary  journal  of  his,  an  idea  which 
flourished  under  the  two  names,  The  Pcnn  Monthly 
and  The  Stylus,  began  openly  to  further  his  schemes, 
which  Burton  resented;  he  accused  Poe  of  misusing 
the  good-will  of  the  paper  on  which  he  served.  Still, 
Burton  was  a  well-disposed  friend  of  Poe's.  He  re 
quested  Graham  to  retain  the  young  editor.  The  Gen 
tleman's  Magazine  had  afforded  Poe  ample  opportu 
nity  to  republish  old  material,  and  here,  too,  he  made 
his  first  accusation  of  plagiarism  against  Longfellow, 
a  discussion  which,  around  1845,  assumed  ridiculous 
and  unwise  proportions.  It  was  Poe's  sensitiveness, 
his  distrust  of  human  nature  in  general,  which  em 
broiled  him  so  often  with  men  like  Olivers,  the  South 
ern  poet,  and  which  drew  down  upon  him  unjust  accu 
sations  from  those  who  had  either  directly  or  indirectly 
been  hurt  by  his  ire. 

During  this  period,  Poe  developed  wonderful  powers 
of  analysis  and  synthesis.  He  prided  himself  upon 
his  ability  to  read  whatever  cryptogram  was  given  him, 
so  he  published  an  open  challenge  in  Graham's,  as  the 
magazine  was  now  called,  and  was  thereupon  deluged 
with  all  kinds  of  hieroglyphics,  which  he  proceeded  to 
solve  with  amazing  case.  It  was  this  analytical  mind 
that  made  his  stories  appear  so  accurate  in  their  seem 
ing  knowledge  of  science  and  metaphysics.  His  tales 
all  contain  elements  that  produce  a  peculiar  weirdness 
and  orientalism.  He  forestalled  the  plot  of  Dickens' 
"  Barnaby  Rudge,"  before  he  had  seen  the  final  chap 
ters  of  the  book.  Poe's  mind  was  essentially  specula 
tive,  and  granting  the  speculation  possible,  it  was  thor 
oughly  logical  as  far  as  it  went. 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  287 

After  the  abandonment,  in  February,  1841,  of  the 
Penn  Monthly,  for  which  a  prospectus  had  many  times 
been  issued,  Poe  took  the  editorial  chair  of  Graham's. 
For  this  magazine  and  for  The  Saturday  Evening 
Post  he  poured  forth  all  the  originality  of  his  genius. 
As  a  reviewer,  he  distributed  his  spleen  and  what  he 
considered  to  be  his  just  censure.  The  circulation  of 
the  magazine  increased  rapidly,  a  fact  that  made  the 
editor  discontented,  because  he  did  not  possess  any  of 
the  proprietary  rights. 

He  worked  hard  and  faithfully  in  Philadelphia; 
Graham  appreciated  that.  And  in  the  midst  of  it  all, 
so  Graham  wrote,  Poe  lavished  upon  his  wife  a  love 
which  "  was  a  sort  of  rapturous  worship  of  the  spirit 
of  beauty,  which  he  felt  was  fading  before  his  eyes." 
He  parted  from  Graham  and  returned  to  New  York 
in  April,  1844;  Mrs.  Poe  was  in  so  delicate  a  state  of 
health  that  she  needed  his  constant  care.  Worldly 
matters  were  now  pressing  hard  upon  him.  "  I  believe 
she  [Virginia]  was  the  only  woman  he  ever  truly 
loved,"  declared  Mrs.  Osgood. 

'Reaching  New  York,  Poe  conceived  the  idea  of  the 
"  Balloon  Hoax,"  the  description  of  a  great  flying  ma 
chine  which  had  crossed  the  Atlantic  in  three  days. 
Published  in  the  New  York  Sun,  it  created  unusual 
interest.  Poe  was  gifted  in  the  ease  with  which  he 
handled  material  of  a  pseudo-scientific  character. 
"  Hoaxing,"  claims  Professor  Harrison,  was  "  an  in 
grained  element  of  Poe's  intellectual  make-up."  In 
this  instance,  the  modern  Zeppelin  and  the  Wrights 
may  yet  verify  his  claims. 

This  period  of  his  life  was  marked  by  his  associa 
tion  with  Nathaniel  P.  Willis,  editor  of  the  Evening 
Mirror.  He  was  as  usual  assiduous  and  conscientious, 
although  filling  but  a  minor  position  as  casual  para- 
grapher.  "  We  loved  the  man,"  said  Willis,  "  for 
the  entireness  of  fidelity  with  which  he  served  us." 


288    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

How  hard  he  toiled,  how  painful  he  found  his  daily 
existence  may  well  be  imagined.  Mrs.  Clemm,  dur 
ing  the  fateful  year  of  1849,  consulted  Willis  as  to 
what  to  do.  The  Poe  family  was  in  absolute  want. 
The  kindly  editor  put  in  his  paper  a  plea  for  Poe  which 
stung  the  latter  to  the  quick;  his  pride  would  have 
made  him  starve  in  the  streets  rather  than  beg,  though 
he  had  no  hesitancy  in  borrowing,  since  he  always 
meant  to  pay  back.  In  this  year  of  1845,  a  kind  °f 
partial  fulfillment  of  a  life-long  desire  occurred;  Poe 
found  himself  as  sole  proprietor  of  The  Broadway 
Journal.  Dreaming  always  of  running  a  fearless 
organ,  not  typically  American  but  boldly  critical,  he 
now  realized  that  capital  was  quite  as  requisite  as 
ideas.  And  though  he  made  constant  appeals  for 
financial  backing,  he  had  to  let  the  paper  die  a  slow 
death.  Then  it  was  that  he  penned  his  stanzas  on 
'  The  Raven, "  while  living  on  West  Eighty-fourth 
Street,  and  not,  as  is  commonly  believed,  after  he  had 
moved  to  Fordham. 

The  poem  brought  Poe  again  into  prominence;  he 
was  always  riding  on  the  topmost  wave  of  his  own 
creations,  always  to  be  tossed  farther  into  the  depths, 
the  higher  he  went.  He  used  to  read  his  poems  in 
the  few  social  circles  where  he  was  sometimes  seen, 
a  figure  of  somber  bearing;  but  his  brilliant  conver 
sation  always  left  a  profound  impression  upon  those 
who  heard  him.  When  he  read,  his  melodious  voice 
would  rise  in  its  enthusiasm  to  a  pitch  of  quivering 
excitement;  he  would  seem  intoxicated  by  the  mere 
sway  of  his  own  creations;  his  eyes  would  gleam  into 
the  realm  of  fancy,  his  whole  being  utterly  forgetful 
of  those  around  him, — somehow  slipping  his  identity 
altogether  in  the  mad  frenzy  of  the  moment.  Not 
only  did  he  read  his  poetry  well,  but  he  was  always 
testing  the  processes  of  his  own  inventiveness.  His 
claim  that  there  could  be  no  such  thing  as  a  long 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  289 

poem  often  formed  an  evening's  topic  of  conversation, 
while  the  analyses  of  the  steps  involved  in  the  writing 
of  "The  Raven'*  became  the  theme  for  one  of  his 
most  interesting,  if  not  most  persuasive,  essays. 

Despite  the  negative  conditions  of  both  mind  and 
body,  1845  mav  be  considered  Edgar  Poe's  "banner 
year."  His  work  was  continual  and  varied;  every 
thing  found  its  way  into  print,  but  no  material  bene 
fits  resulted.  Then,  in  1846,  he  moved  to  Fordham, 
where  he  could  have  his  garden,  and  where  he  and 
Virginia  could  enjoy  the  companionship  of  out-of- 
door  life.  Still,  poverty  pressed  closer  and  closer, 
while  weakness  in  the  frail  little  woman  by  his  side 
became  more  and  more.  On  January  30,  1847,  Mrs. 
Poe  died,  with  scarcely  covering  enough  on  the  bed 
sufficient  to  warm  her  shivering  body. 

Literary  commissions  began  to  drop  away  from 
Poe.  Struggling  with  little  hope,  he  resurrected 
The  Stylus,  in  which  he  had  roused  the  interest  of  a 
Western  man.  It  is  a  peculiar  instance  of  the  work 
ing  of  Poe's  mind  that  before  leaving  New  York 
for  Richmond,  he  wrote  to  Griswold  asking  him  to  be 
come  his  literary  executor.  Probably  premonitions  of 
approaching  danger  had  seized  his  overwrought  mind. 
To  Mrs.  Lewis,  the  "  Stella"  of  his  affection,  he  spoke 
of  never  seeing  her  again.  He  told  everyone  good 
bye  with  a  feeling  that  he  would  not  return.  In 
Philadelphia,  where  he  stopped,  he  attempted  suicide, 
but  recovered  from  his  frenzy  sufficiently  to  reach 
Richmond. 

Even  with  the  mass  of  data  concerning  the  death 
of  Edgar  Poe,  it  is  well  to  leave  it  shrouded  in  an  in 
distinct  mist.  He  went  away  from  Richmond  after 
having  been  brightened  somewhat  by  the  renewal 
of  many  friendships.  Drunkenness,  stupor,  election 
brawls,  cloud  the  movements  of  the  poor  man  after 
he  arrived  in  Baltimore.  The  hospital  authorities 


29o    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

omld  state  nothing  up  to  the  time  they  were  called  to 
take  him  away  unconscious.  Delirious,  he  begged 
someone  to  blow  his  brains  out.  Perhaps  for  the  first 
time  he  felt  the  spirit  of  peace  approach  him  at  the 
end,  which  came  on  October  7,  1849.  "  Lord  help  my 
soul,"  he  cried  and  expired.  If  he  had  been  drugged, 
it  is  significant,  thinks  Professor  Harrison,  that  Poe 
left  Richmond  with  $1000  in  subscriptions  on  his  per 
son. 

Intense  somberness  heightened  by  intense  romanti 
cism, — that  is  Poe ;  somberness  and  romanticism  given 
mora.l  balance  by  Puritanism, — that  is  Hawthorne; 
there,  it  seems,  the  similarity  ends.  As  a  critic,  Poe 
may  be  called  an  American  pioneer;  as  a  short  story 
writer,  he  may  be  considered  a  universal  example.  It 
is  that  which  has  probably  established  his  position 
abroad.  It  took  a  decadent,  Baudelaire,  to  do  a 
French  translation  of  Poe  which,  even  English  readers 
find,  contains  the  tone  of  the  original.  It  took 
Mallarme  to  translate  some  of  his  verse. 

No  better  example  of  the  Poe  type  in  fiction  can  be 
had  than  Poe  himself;  he  realized  it  in  his  "William 
Wilson,"  the  story  of  a  dual  personality;  in  "Beren 
ice,"  and  more  markedly  still  in  "  Eleanora  " :  "I  am 
come  of  a  race  noted  for  vigor  of  fancy  and  ardor 
of  passion.  Men  have  called  me  mad;  but  the  ques 
tion  is  not  yet  settled  whether  madness  is  or  is  not 
the  loftiest  intelligence."  No  sadder  plight  can  be, 
than  that  where  a  man  becomes  conscious  of  his  lack 
of  will.  His  life  of  whim  was  an  abnormal  one. 

Poe  occupies  a  peculiar  place  in  American  litera 
ture;  his  very  name  conjures  up  a  cynical,  dark,  fore 
boding  picture.  Yet  he  fascinated  by  his  very  power 
of  expression  and  imagination.  He  wrote  too  repor- 
torially  to  be  a  critic  of  weight,  yet  his  judgment  was 
intuitively  correct  and  his  critical  knowledge  played 
upon  American  books  and  American  authors.  He 


ANTE-BELLUM    PERIOD  291 

was  much  surer  of  the  mystic  purple  of  gloom,  how 
ever,  than  he  was  of  the  brawn  and  sinew  of  Ameri 
can  hope.  Had  he  been  living  to-day,  he  would  have 
been  heard  of  in  the  psychical  societies  that  are  try 
ing  to  reach  the  unknown  through  disembodied  spirits. 
He  was  a  friend  of  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning; 
and  his  occult  interest  probably  drew  them  together, 
beyond  her  admiration  for  the  music  of  "  The  Raven." 
It  just  happened  that  Poe  was  born  on  American 
soil;  only  his  minor  work  touches  American  life.  If 
we  set  out  to  draw  an  American  portrait  of  him,  we 
must  concentrate  our  attention  upon  him  as  a  critic. 
His  tales,  his  poems  are  based  on  a  foundation  of 
nerves.  Poe  was  more  akin  to  the  country  of 
Maeterlinck  than  to  the  land  of  Cooper.  Wherever 
he  went,  a  shadow  followed  him :  before,  behind,  to 
the  right  and  to  the  left.  Poe  lived  in  the  land  of 
Poe,  haunted,  dogged,  tormented,  and  finally  undone 
by  a  shadowy,  unstable  image  of  himself. 


IV 
CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD 


TABLE  OF  AUTHORS 

1775-1861  ....     GEORGE  TUCKER Virginia 

1800-1856  .     .     MRS.  CAROLINE  LEE  HENTZ     .     N.  C,  Ala.,  Fla. 

1807-1870  .     .     .       ROBERT  EDWARD  LEE  ....     Virginia 

1810-1881  .     .     REV.  FRANCIS  ROBERT  GOULDING     .     .     Georgia 

1810-1885  ....      ROBERT  TOOMBS Georgia 

1812-1883  •     •  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  STEPHENS    .     .     Georgia 

1814-1863  .     .     WILLIAM    LOWNDES    YANCEY       .     .     Alabama 

1819-1899  .     MRS.  E.  D.  E.  N.  SOUTHWORTH     Dist.  of  Columbia 

1820-1867  ....   THEODORE  O'HARA     ....  Kentucky 

1820-1897  .     .  MRS.  MARGARET  JUNKIN  PRESTON   .     .     Virginia 

1822-1874  •     •     •  FRANCIS   ORRERY   TICKNOR    .     .     .     Georgia 

1823-1873  .     .       JOHN    REUBEN   THOMPSON     .     .     .     Virginia 

1825-1906  .     .     JOHN   WILLIAMSON   PALMER  .      .     .  Maryland 

1825-1887  .     .      AUGUSTUS  JULIAN   REQUIER     .  South  Carolina 

1829-1867  ....     HENRY  TIMROD  .     .     .     South  Carolina 

1829-1879  .     .       MRS.  SARAH  ANNE  DORSEY     .     .     Mississippi 

1829-1887  .     .     .      JAMES  BARRON  HOPE    ....     Virginia 

1830-  .     MRS.  MARY  VIRGINIA  [HAWES] 

TERHUNE   (MARION   HARLAND)     .     .     Virginia 

1830-1886  ....  JOHN  ESTEN  COOKE     ....     Virginia 

1830-1886  .     .     .  PAUL  HAMILTON  HAYNE     .     South  Carolina 

1835-  .     .     .  HENRY    LYNDEN    FLASH  .     .     .     Louisiana 

1835-1909  .     .     .  AUGUSTA   EVANS    WILSON     .     .     .  Alabama 

1839-1909  .     .     .     JAMES  RYDER  RANDALL     .     .     .   Maryland 

1839-1886  .     .     .     ABRAM  JOSEPH   RYAN     ....  Alabama 

1842-1881  ....       SIDNEY  LANIER Georgia 


CHAPTER  XIII 
SOCIAL  FORCES 

THE  PROBLEMS  OF  SECESSION  ;  THE  ORATORS  OF  SE 
CESSION  ;  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY  ; 
THE  STRESS  OF  WAR;  THE  FALL  OF  THE  OLD  RE 
GIME;  THE  FORCE  OF  LEADERSHIP;  THE  NEW 
SOUTH  AMIDST  THE  RUINS  ;  INTELLECTUAL  DE- 

MARKATIONS  CAUSED  BY  THE  WAR;  THE  OLD- 
FASHIONED  NOVELISTS:  JOHN  ESTEN  COOKE,  ST. 
GEORGE  TUCKER,  AUGUSTA  EVANS,  AND  OTHERS. 


THE  problems  confronting  the  Southern  people  dur 
ing  the  decade  beginning  1850  were  those  of  expedi 
ency  ;  they  were  simply  a  continuation,  in  more  aggra 
vated  form,  of  the  conditions  already  outlined  in  pre 
ceding  chapters.  But  a  change  in  intensity  rather 
than  in  kind  betokens  a  far  different  temper,  an  atti 
tude  of  mind  which  distinguishes  the  statesman  from 
the  politician.  Furthermore,  an  actual  state  of  war 
imposes  upon  the  people  at  large  immediate  measures 
and  sacrifices,  and  brings  to  light  the  true  strength  or 
weakness  of  those  resources  which  indicate  in  a  way 
the  social  and  economic  status  of  the  civilization. 

The  change  of  intellectual  bearing  toward  constitu 
tional  interpretation  takes  more  than  a  war  to  effect; 
generations  must  intervene  between  the  now  and  then 
of  time.  Writing  in  1897,  Professor  Trent  declared 
that  the  men  between  sixty-five  and  fifty-two  years  of 
age  working  in  the  New  South  were  men  who,  in  1860, 
ranged  in  years  between  twenty-nine  and  sixteen,  and 

295 


296    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

therefore  had  well-ingrained  the  ideas  which  were  be 
hind  the  Civil  War.  If  numbers  are  at  all  significant, 
we  should  follow  Professor  Trent  a  few  steps  further 
and  note  that  in  1897,  rnen  a£ed  between  fifty-two  and 
forty  were  "  practically  unaffected  by  the  civilization 
for  which  they  fought."  Is  there  any  meaning  to 
these  facts?  It  is  only  the  generation  that  in  1897 
varied  in  years  between  thirty-six  and  twenty-five,  we 
may  really  consider  to  be  products  of  the  New  South. 
Therefore,  we  find  that  the  real,  true  upbuilclers  of  the 
Present  South  were  men  who  "  either  brought  to  their 
task  the  ideas  and  training  of  an  older  generation  and 
a  bygone  civilization,  or  else  have  carried  on  their  work 
untrained  or  self-trained." 

How,  therefore,  did  the  prostrate  section  gain  that 
education,  which,  Dr.  Alderman  says,  has  come 
through  defeat?  By  falling  back  upon  those  perma 
nent  characteristics  of  the  Old  Civilization  which  are 
the  chief  glory  of  the  Southern  people.  Thus  we  may 
have  taken  a  round-about  fashion  of  reaching  the 
statement  that  the  men  who  handled  the  problems  of 
secession  were  so  steeped  in  the  constitutional  preju 
dices  of  their  forebears,  that,  what  with  their  threat 
ened  economic  system,  with  the  palpable  discrimination 
of  Congress,  with  the  increasing  aggravation  of  sec 
tional  temper,  due  in  part  to  natural  sensitiveness  and 
very  largely  to  fanaticism  on  both  sides,  they  lost  sight 
of  the  national  view  in  the  consuming  necessity  for 
special  pleading. 

It  is  essential  that  we  determine  the  temper,  rather 
than  the  change  in  views,  of  the  Southern  people,  for 
the  inevitable  trend  that  affairs  had  taken  was  already 
apparent  before  the  death  of  Jefferson,  and  had  been 
forecast  by  Calhoun.  The  war  spirit  is  not  given  to 
rise  quietly ;  it  does  not  brook  forbearance,  and  it 
flows  in  isolated  streams  until  some  event  fuses 
nil  into  one  torrent  of  public  accord.  The  generation 
of  orators  succeeding  Calhoun  was  nearer  the  whirl- 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  297 

pool ;  these  men  juggled  with  the  double-headed  in 
terpretation  of  the  Constitution  left  by  the  framers, 
and  split  into  as  many  political  factions  as  there  were 
varieties  of  opinions. 

Agitation  was  the  spirit  of  the  time ;  there  were  union 
and  disunion  elements  in  the  South : — parties  in  the 
different  states,  holding  to  the  same  beliefs,  yet  dif 
fering  in  the  intensities  of  those  beliefs;  one  crying 
for  instant  secession,  the  other  more  conservative  re 
garding  a  definite  break,  but  determined  to  resist  every 
encroachment  upon  Southern  rights  that  might  come 
from  the  North.  In  their  speech,  many  of  them  were 
rash,  but  when  the  time  arrived,  brought  discernment 
to  bear  with  wise  counsel.  Such  a  man  was  Toombs 
(1810-1885).  Some,  like  Stephens  (1812-1883),  be 
lieving  in  the  Union  and  disapproving  of  slavery, 
showed  more  wisdom  though  no  less  sincerity  than 
Davis  in  their  actions.  The  political  divisions  weak 
ened  the  voice  of  the  South  at  that  time,  made  it 
difficult  for  a  party  leader  to  determine  how  far  he 
might  be  able  to  go  with  sufficient  public  support. 
William  Loundes  Yancey's  (1814-1863)  existence  was 
a  precarious  one.  Though  adamant  in  his  stand  for 
secession,  this  Alabama  fire-eater  felt  popular  favor 
ooze  through  his  fingers  at  one  convention,  only  to 
find  at  another  that  he  had  all  within  his  grasp.  In 
a  way,  Yancey's  attitude  gave  to  Alabama  a  signifi 
cant  position  among  the  Southern  States. 

Do  the  forces  which  governed  Southern  life  dur 
ing  the  Civil  War  differ  fundamentally  from  those 
which  determined  the  tone  of  the  ante-bellum  period? 
The  difference  is  simply  one  of  degree — one  which  dis 
tinguishes  the  orator  from  the  soldier.  The  reminis 
cences  of  Mrs.  Roger  A.  Pryor  and  of  Mrs.  Clay-Clop- 
ton  have  the  same  unmistakable  warm  tone  and  ample 
cordiality  which  marked  the  "  Memorials  of  a  Southern 
Planter"  by  Susan  D.  Smedes, — the  records  of  the 
Dabney  family.  But  even  here  the  difference  is  one 


298     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

of  intensity,  brought  about  by  the  armed  neutrality 
which  marked  society  in  Washington  during  the  years 
preceding  the  outbreak.  Wherever  one  turns  to  ex 
amine  condition,  the  blood  of  the  Southerner  beat  at 
higher  tension  and  his  mind  was  bent  on  self-protec 
tion.  Beverley  Tucker's  "  Partisan  Leader "  was 
simply  premature,  a  warning  fever-spot  which  took  on 
the  semblance  of  prophecy  as  events  progressed. 

The  old-time  historical  method  was  one  of  proud 
tradition  rather  than  one  of  analytical  judgment; 
events  were  measured  by  leaders ;  and  writers,  whether 
they  were  dealing  in  biography  or  in  fiction,  idealized 
their  heroes  for  the  sake  of  character  above  the  fact. 
Even  such  a  late  literary  product  as  John  Esten  Cooke 
passed  from  the  large  figures  of  the  Revolution  to 
those  of  the  Civil  War,  from  Patrick  Henry  in  "  The 
Virginia  Comedians  "  to  "  Stonewall  "  Jackson  and  to 
"  Surrey  of  Eagle's  Nest." 

Generally,  the  character  of  the  literature  remained 
the  same;  the  leaders  who  fought  left  their  reminis 
cences  and  their  recollections  of  a  youth  passed  under 
the  tutelage  of  the  Gentleman  of  the  Black  Stock. 
Their  bearing  was  indelibly  stamped  with  all  those 
distinct  peculiarities  of  a  rural  civilization,  and  they 
were  accustomed  to  the  spirit  of  control  which  slavery 
and  caste  encouraged.  Some  even,  like  Davis  and 
Lee,  Joseph  E.  Johnston  and  Beauregard,  Jackson  and 
Longstreet,  passed  through  West  Point  into  the  Mexi 
can  War,  and  became  associates  in  other  conflicts  like 
the  Black  Hawk  War  and  John  Brown's  Raid.  Thus, 
the  Southern  orators  of  secession  were  trained  under 
the  shadow  of  the  greater  statesmanship,  while  the 
leaders  of  the  Confederate  armies  learned  their  tactics 
in  the  service  of  the  nation. 

As  we  have  previously  said,  a  war  literature  is  not 
marked  by  the  highest  technique;  its  chief  value  lies 
in  its  unavoidable  reflection  of  the  temper  of  the  times. 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  299 

The  importance  of  such  data  is  inestimable  in  deter 
mining  the  stress  and  strain  of  the  moment.  Un 
fortunately,  its  after-effect  on  the  literature  is  not 
the  most  excellent,  since,  in  the  case  of  the  Southerner, 
it  served  to  encourage  a  natural  inclination  to  look 
backward  instead  of  forward.  The  consequence  is 
that,  literarily,  {he  past  decade  illustrates  how  persist 
ently  the  old  traits  have  held  us  in  thrall.  Miss  Glas 
gow's  "The  Battleground "  and  Mr.  Cable's  "Kin- 
kaid's  Battery"  are  the  most  excellent  examples  of 
the  past  spirit  attached  to  a  newer  and  more  natural 
method. 

The  social  students  of  such  institutions  as  Johns 
Hopkins  and  Columbia  University,  who  are  now  deal 
ing  with  the  forces  of  the  Civil  War,  are  doing  much 
to  correct  the  vision  of  the  Southern  novelist;  they 
are  dealing  with  the  substrata  of  this  civilization  which 
gave  life  to  the  seceded  states  in  the  hour  of  defeat. 
Not  alone  are  they  considering  the  romance  of  love 
and  the  melancholy  devastation  of  war  descending 
upon  romantic  characters,  but  they  are  dealing  with 
a  people  in  a  larger  manner,  and  are  showing  these 
people  in  relation  to  the  forces  of  environment.  From 
such  views  we  are  beginning  to  see  that  the  roots  of 
the  New  South  did  not  take  hold  after  the  war,  but 
were  simply  retarded  in  immediate  growth  by  the  ac 
tual  assumption  of  hostilities. 


A  study  of  conditions  will  show  likewise  that  events 
determined  the  thought  of  the  orators  of  secession ; 
they  were  true  to  their  training,  they  were  sincere  in 
their  intentness,  but  they  were  too  provincial  to  see  that 
moral  forces  outside  of  themselves  were  far  too  strong 
for  them.  The  direct  influence  of  the  abolitionist 
was  not  as  great  as  would  seem  on  the  surface;  his 


300    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

presence  was  an  irritant  which  served  to  keep  ever- 
present  the  slower  moral  force  existing  in  spite  of 
him,  and  of  which  he  was  an  extreme  example.  The 
fire-eater  held  a  more  direct  position  in  relation  to  his 
constituents.  Yancey,  in  Alabama,  is  historically,  as 
Brown  states,  "among  the  half-dozen  men  who  have 
had  most  to  do  with  the  shaping  of  American  history 
in  this  century."  He  was  the  heart  and  soul  of  seces 
sion, — a  figure  of  big  invective,  who  resisted  compro 
mise,  and  who  unswervingly  followed  a  direct  course. 
It  is  strange  that  a  man  who,  in  early  life,  would 
oppose  Calhoun's  theory  of  nullification,  should  with 
equal  intensity  decry  Clay's  plan  to  save  the  Union. 

There  were  eight  political  parties  in  Alabama  be 
tween  1845  and  J855.  When  Yancey  ceased  to  support 
the  Union,  he  declared  himself  a  Democrat  of  the 
States'  Rights  wing;  where  others  wavered,  he  stood 
firm;  in  1845,  ne  marched  from  the  halls  of  Congress 
because  the  Northern  Democrats  opposed  Southern 
measures.  Politics  were  in  a  jumble ;  constituents, 
opposed  as  Whigs  and  Democrats,  united  in  their  ideas 
on  the  "compact  theory"  of  the  Constitution.  Yan- 
cey's  creed  was  simply :  I  champion  anything  that  fur 
thers  the  South.  He  became  the  center  of  attraction 
at  conventions,  he  was  sought  after  at  barbecues;  in 
a  way,  he  was  an  autocrat,  and  though  his  actions  were 
often  doubtful,  they  were  generally  forgiven. 

Yancey's  strength  ebbed  and  flowed  with  the  com 
promise  measures ;  he  triumphed  in  the  Alabama  Plat 
form  of  1848,  born  in  part  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso, 
and  containing  a  twelfth  resolution  which  breathed  of 
secession  in  its  determination  to  recognize  no  Demo 
crat  as  such  who  attempted  to  "  demoralize  the  South 
and  its  institutions."  The  South  opposed  sectional 
discrimination  in  recently  acquired  territory,  and  depre 
cated  the  North's  ill-faith  in  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law 
agreement. 


CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD  301 

The  figure  of  Yancey  is  marked  by  picturesque 
action.  At  the  Baltimore  Convention  he  swept  from 
the  hall  because  he  would  not  support  the  theory  of 
squatter-sovereignty ;  he  was  continually  sending  forth 
addresses  to  the  people  of  Alabama,  and  finding  him 
self  halted  in  his  onward  progress  by  determined  oppo 
sition  from  Union  m6n,  who,  like  Henry  W.  Milliard 
and  Governor  Watts,  believed  in  compromise  rather 
than  in  secession. 

Amidst  the  pressure  of  rising  temper,  the  South  held 
no  definite  attitude  toward  the  Constitution;  its  de 
termined  stand,  however,  was  for  the  preservation  of 
its  own  existence  and  individuality.  With  the  com 
promise  of  1850,  Yancey  lost  sight  of  the  theories  of 
secession ;  secession,  per  se,  became  the  objective  point ; 
to  him  that  was  the  only  way  of  saving  the  plantation 
system.  In  this  spirit,  he  undertook  to  agitate  the 
movement,  and  how  well  he  succeeded  is  measured  by 
the  event.  By  1858,  his  so-called  "  scarlet  letter  "  fell 
upon  rich  soil,  which  he  had  relentlessly  prepared. 
"  No  national  party  can  save  us,"  he  cried ;  "  no  sec 
tional  party  can  save  us."  As  he  stood  in  Mont 
gomery  on  the  balcony  of  the  Exchange  Hotel, 
haughty,  grim,  sure  of  himself,  people  saw  before  them 
the  very  symbolic  brand  of  hatred  against  "  Black  Re 
publicanism,"  a  phrase  which  dotted  his  periods  and 
sentences.  Some,  far  removed  in  the  crowd  while  lis 
tening  to  him,  caught  the  waves  of  passion  through 
what  a  witness  called  the  ventriloquial  property  of  his 
voice. 

Armed  with  the  Alabama  Platform  of  1848,  Yan 
cey  went  to  the  Charleston  Convention  of  1860,  fear 
ing  the  victory  of  the  North,  yet  intent  on  carrying  the 
demands  of  his  section.  His  speech  was  of  no  avail, 
and,  with  that  melodramatic  quickness  which  marked 
his  meteoric  progress,  he  left  the  hall,  this  time"  not 
alone,  but  followed  by  the  Southern  delegates.  Dur- 


302     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

ing  this  year  he  invaded  the  enemy's  camp  in  the  inter 
ests  of  Breckinridge,  for  he  was  pledged  in  his  own 
mind  against  the  Clay  habit  of  compromise  which 
Douglas  had  inherited.  Speech  after  speech  was  re 
ported  in  the  papers,  and  they  rang  more  and  more 
defiantly  as  he  neared  Cincinnati.  Who  can  picture  a 
more  strenuous  scene  than  that  in  Faneuil  Hall  when 
he  blazed  his  way  through  abolition  sympathy,  or 
scenes  more  illustrative  of  the  rising  intensity  of  South 
ern  sentiment  than  his  receptions,  once  more  at  home, 
when  the  citizens  of  Nashville  pulled  his  carriage 
through  the  streets,  and  New  Orleans  declared  a  formal 
holiday  in  his  honor?  The  tide  was  rising.  If  the 
Republican  party  was  to  gain  a  victory  in  the  national 
elections,  Yancey  at  least  held  the  reins  of  disunion 
in  his  hands.  He  traveled  upon  the  heels  of  Douglas 
in  Montgomery ;  he  fired  his  most  effective  arguments, 
and  the  people  of  Alabama  drew  closer  together.  The 
Union  sentiment  in  that  State  is  not  to  be  identified 
with  sympathy  for  the  Northern  attitude. 

In  this  manner  the  "  fire-eater"  worked,  and  he  ac 
complished  his  ends  effectively,  if  not  wisely.  Yet 
even  in  determining  the  cast  of  Southern  feeling,  we 
must  indicate  relative  degrees.  Robert  Toombs  may 
be  considered  a  mean  between  Yancey  and  Alexander 
Stephens.  The  transitory  character  of  such  speech 
as  Yancey's  is  reinforced  only  by  an  examination 
of  the  papers  of  the  time ;  in  style,  it  was  calculated 
for  instant  appeal ;  in  content  it  was  framed  for 
instruction,  not  for  keen  interpretation.  While 
throughout  the  States  the  partisan  newspaper  per 
formed  its  functions,  the  true  lyceum  was  still  the 
platform. 

in 

Robert  Toombs,  of  Georgia,  typifies  the  Southern 
mind  in  another  interesting  aspect;  as  a  man  of  un 
swerving  business  integrity,  he  was  at  the  same  time 


CIVIL    WAR    PERIOD  303 

provincial  and  progressive;  his  legal  grasp  was  quick 
and  masterful;  his  practical  point  of  view  made  him 
opposed  to  the  Calhoun  school  of  politics,  inasmuch  as 
he  saw  wherein  a  protective  tariff  and  a  national  bank 
were  beneficial.  He  opposed  the  principle  of  internal 
improvements,  and  foresaw  the  aggressive  attitude  of 
State  railways  and  corporations  which  he  combated 
at  a  later  day.  Being  of  an  exacting  temper,  he  pre 
ferred  associating  himself  with  the  State  Assembly 
rather  than  with  the  Senate,  and  so  sincere  was  he  in 
his  belief  that  the  Whigs  of  the  North  were  one  with 
those  of  the  South,  and  so  emphatic  was  he  in  his 
declarations  that  it  was  well  to  encourage  free  labor 
in  preference  to  slave  labor,  that  he  was  soon  regarded 
as  somewhat  of  an  Abolitionist.  As  a  States'  Rights 
Whig,  he  was  akin  to  Troup,  whom  we  have  already 
considered. 

This  man,  who  later  was  to  be  a  fugitive,  was, 
around  1840,  firmly  convinced  of  the  fact  that  slavery 
was  a  political  evil.  Yet  he  was  imbued  with  the  tradi 
tions  of  Virginia  landowners ;  he  was  a  firm  supporter 
of  a  strong  Supreme  Court  in  the  State,  and  fought 
against  a  system  of  surety  which  had  brought  sure  dis 
aster  upon  the  heads  of  "  flush-times  "  men  in  the  finan 
cial  panic  of  1837.  These  facts  are  sufficient  to  indi 
cate  the  sincere  honesty  of  the  man.  He  opposed  the 
Texas  and  Mexican  aggrandizements  as  constitution 
ally  unjust, — so  unlike  Wise,  soon  to  be  the  war  gov 
ernor  of  Virginia,  who  maneuvered  with  Calhoun 
for  the  annexation  of  all  territory  he  could  seize.  It 
was  somewhat  surprising  to  find  Toombs,  as  repre 
sentative  from  Georgia  in  the  Twenty-ninth  Congress 
(1845),  opposing  the  Oregon  claims,  and  saying: 
"  Let  us  repress  any  unworthy  sectional  feeling  which 
looks  only  to  the  attainment  of  sectional  power." 
Persistently  his  voice  was  heard  in  the  cause  of  the 
rights  of  States;  he  did  not  champion  the  moral  argu- 


304    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

ment  in  favor  of  slavery,  but  he  believed  in  the  com 
mon  rights  of  all  States  in  acquired  territory.  He 
therefore  looked  askance  at  compromises  which  would 
abrogate  any  of  the  privileges  of  the  compact;  the 
property  law  of  the  slave  States  should  be  recognized 
without  restriction.  In  picturesque  fashion  he  regarded 
the  "  Clayton  Compromise  "  as  "  the  Euthanasia  of 
states'  rights."  His  assumption  of  the  necessity  for 
secession  grew  out  of  this  unswerving  attitude  toward 
the  territorial  question.  In  June,  1850,  he  was  fully 
determined  that,  should  the  South  be  denied  these  equal 
rights,  he  for  one  would  be  ready  to  "  strike  for  inde 
pendence." 

But  though  determined  and  vehement,  he  advised 
the  people  of  Georgia,  in  whom  disunion  was  rife,  to 
forbear  and  "  stand  by  the  Constitution  and  the  laws 
in  good  faith."  The  growth  of  his  position  was  due 
entirely  to  the  threatening  elements  which  comprised 
"the  marked  battery  behind  which  the  rights  of  the 
South  are  to  be  assaulted."  This  is  nowhere  better 
witnessed  than  in  the  tumultuous  scene  in  the  House 
(1850),  which  brought  the  Northern  Whigs  against 
Toombs  and  the  Southern  constituents.  At  that  mo 
ment,  had  it  not  been  for  the  firmness  of  the  Georgia 
delegation — Toombs,  Stephens,  and  Howell  Cobb — the 
disunion  movement  would  have  triumphed.  The  Con 
stitutional  Union  Party  was  the  result. 

The  fervor  of  Toombs  on  one  hand  and  his  rash 
ness  on  the  other  were  safeguarded  by  his  willingness 
to  compromise.  He  was  firm  regarding  the  inviolable 
right  of  property,  and  the  sovereignty  of  States;  these 
points  were  well  expressed  in  the  Georgia  Platform  of 
1850.  But  he  was  willing  to  bridge  over  the  impend 
ing  chasm,  while  Yancey  would  have  rushed  headlong 
into  the  gulf.  Still,  once  convinced  of  the  necessity 
for  secession,  Toombs  advised  immediate  action.  He 
telegraphed  to  the  people  of  Georgia  on  December  22, 


CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD  305 

1860 :  "  Secession  by  the  fourth  of  March  next  should 
be  thundered  from  the  ballot-box  by  the  unanimous 
voice  of  Georgia.  Such  a  voice  will  be  your  best 
guaranty  for  liberty,  security,  tranquility,  and  glory." 

Whatever  the  scope  of  the  senatorial  documents  ex 
amined,  it  soon  becomes  apparent  how  similar  the  polit 
ical  forces  confronting  each  State,  yet  involving  per 
sonalities  of  such  differing  caliber.  Yancey  would 
never,  like  Toombs,  have  grown  to  revere  both  Web 
ster  and  Clay.  Yancey  was  a  party  dictator;  Toombs 
deplored  "  the  nurseries  of  faction."  But  nevertheless 
the  principles  for  which  they  both  fought  were  in  their 
general  effect  the  same.  Like  Yancey,  Toombs  in 
vaded  the  North,  and  in  Tremont  Temple  presented 
his  closely  argued  legal  defense  of  slavery,  based  upon 
the  keenest  ideas  of  constitutional  equity.  If  it  were 
possible,  with  the  existing  state  of  slavery,  to  conceive 
of  privilege  for  the  bondmen,  Toombs'  attitude  was  in 
many  respects  a  foreshadowed  expression  of  later 
opinion.  He  believed  in  free  labor,  in  the  wage  sys 
tem,  in  elementary  education  for  the  slave,  in  skilled 
work ;  he  upheld  the  absolute  integrity  of  the  races,  but 
he  could  not  bring  himself  to  see  that  one  race  in  a  state 
of  slavery  was  a  clog  in  the  wheels  of  progress  for  the 
other;  he  was  too  much  the  son  of  Southern  civiliza 
tion,  too  paternalistic  in  his  own  plantation  system,  to 
see  beneath  the  charm  of  such  an  existence  the  limita 
tions  placed  thereby  upon  the  thought  of  his  section. 

The  time  was  one  of  distortion;  what  was  said  off 
hand,  later  confronted  the  speaker  in  unrecognizable 
terms;  it  was  a  period  of  long  talk,  when  at  camp 
meetings,  hours  were  spent  in  denoting  party  distinc 
tions.  Toombs'  physical  power  was  enormous,  and 
nowhere  brought  into  greater  contrast  than  when 
standing  by  the  shrunken  form  of  his  friend,  Alexander 
H.  Stephens.  He  was  emphatic,  picturesquely  profane, 
convivial  to  the  point  of  over-indulgence.  His  elo- 


3o6    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

quence  in  public  speech  was  no  greater  than  his  charm 
when  conversing  with  ladies;  as  his  biographer  says, 
he  was  a  perfect  Chesterfield.  During  his  fugitive 
days,  after  the  fall  of  the  Confederacy,  he  spent  some 
days  in  hiding  at  the  home  of  Augusta  Evans;  there 
he  had  ample  opportunity  for  satisfying  his  intellectual 
tastes,  since  the  author  of  "Inez"  was  a  woman  of 
rare  mental  attainments.  When  Stephens  heard  of 
the  hospitality  extended  to  his  friend  by  Miss  Evans 
and  her  father,  he  wrote  to  the  former :  "  I  cannot 
forbear  to  thank  you  and  him  for  it  in  the  same  strain 
and  terms  as  if  these  attentions  had  been  rendered  to 
myself.  What  you  did  for  my  friend,  in  this  par 
ticular,  you  did  for  me." 

IV 

The  beauty  of  association  between  these  men  of  the 
South  was  as  great  as  the  adventurous  character  of 
their  careers.  Stephens  spoke  of  Toombs  in  these 
terms :  "  His  was  the  greatest  mind  I  ever  came  in 
contact  with.  Its  operations,  even  in  its  errors,  re 
minded  me  of  a  mighty  waste  of  waters."  On  the 
other  hand,  Toombs'  opinion  of  Stephens  was  thus 
expressed :  "  He  carried  more  brains  and  more  soul 
for  the  least  flesh  of  any  man  God  Almighty  ever 
made." 

Though  the  orators  of  secession  were  on  the  sur 
face  somewhat  rash  in  their  speech,  they  were  well 
grounded  in  their  arguments,  which  were  never  offered 
haphazard  and  were  never  without  consuming  convic 
tion  back  of  them.  Yancey's  life  burned  out  in  the 
hour  of  supreme  victory  for  his  secession  views; 
Toombs  lived  to  see  defeat,  and,  like  many  of  his  asso 
ciates,  to  begin  anew  with  all  the  mental  vigor  of  a 
young  man.  Like  Judah  Benjamin,  he  might  have  prac 
ticed  successfully  abroad,  but  he  preferred,  with  that 
moral  bravery  which  marked  his  actions,  to  return  to 


f 


A  photograph  of  an  oil  painting  in  the  State  Capitol  at  Montgomery,  Alabama. 


CIVIL    WAR    PERIOD  307 

his  state  and  to  serve  it  in  its  direst  need.  The  inci 
dents  in  the  lives  of  these  men  of  the  Lower  South 
offer  excellent  materials  for  fiction;  Toombs'  evasion 
of  Stanton's  orders  for  his  arrest  is  tinged  with  as 
much  excitement  as  any  of  the  escapades  of  Belle  Boyd, 
the  Confederate  spy;  not  only  is  there  the  sharp  tone 
of  suspense,  but  the  social  condition  which  made  such 
adventure  necessary  is  vital. 

Stephens'  soundness  of  political  view  was  colored 
with  a  natural  melancholy  of  mind;  he  was  given  a 
religious  fervor  which  nearly  led  him  into  the  minis 
try,  and  a  sensitive  manner,  partly  physical,  which  kept 
him  somewhat  aloof.  In  this  respect  he  was  not  like 
his  companion,  Toombs,  who  moved  with  an  excess  of 
physical  action.  Stephens,  more  than  any  other 
Southerner  of  the  time,  was  prompted  by  moral  rea 
son  as  well  as  by  sound  legal  judgment.  These  two 
men  held  popular  favor  without  having  to  court  it 
through  sacrifice  of  personal  opinion.  Stephens,  with 
his  conservative  views,  embracing  his  desire  to  pre 
serve  the  Union  and  his  natural  antipathy  to  slavery, 
held  the  people  of  Georgia  because  of  his  reasoning, 
which  appealed  in  its  logic  to  common-sense  rather 
than  to  theoretical  conviction.  Yet,  despite  the  funda 
mental  tone  of  his  character,  Stephens  was  sociable ; 
despite  the  feminine  turn  to  his  voice,  he  was  eloquent 
because  his  speech  was  not  bombastic  or  evanescent; 
despite  his  nearness  to  the  scene,  his  constitutional 
views  helped  him  to  formulate  opinion  which  makes 
his  "War  between  the  States"  an  invaluable  and  re 
markable  document,  considering  the  lack  of  historical 
perspective.  Stephens  was  more  of  a  statesman  than 
any  of  his  immediate  associates. 

On  reading  the  formless  biography  of  Stephens  by 
Richard  Malcolm  Johnston  and  William  Hand  Browne, 
one  is  impressed  with  his  superior  professional  talent 
which  rose  above  the  other  attainments  of  the  man. 


308    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

That  tendency  in  his  youth  toward  a  romantic,  emo 
tional  philosophy  never  developed  beyond  the  average 
firmness  of  a  Scotch-Irish  inheritance.  He  was  a  man 
of  some  considerable  reading,  but  his  sense  of  literary 
values  was  never  acute ;  he  was  a  potential  statesman 
limited  by  the  special  cause  which  held  him.  He 
knew  his  Jefferson,  and  perhaps  echoed  in  his  letters 
to  Linton  some  of  the  Jeffersonian  excesses  of  style. 
Xote  such  expressions  as  this  on  February  3,  1851: 
"  I  am  tempted  to  tell  you  a  secret.  It  is  the  secret 
of  my  life,  ...  to  rise  superior  to  the  neglect 
or  contumely  of  the  mean  of  mankind,  by  doing  them 
good  instead  of  harm." 

But  if  such  narrowness,  such  excess,  such  unsys- 
tematized  learning  as  Stephens  showed,  were  token 
only  of  a  talent,  as  his  critics  seem  to  think,  it  was  very 
superior,  and  in  public  service  represented  the  sane 
side  of  Southern  thought  In  the  midst  of  high  tem 
per  and  unthinking  declaration,  he  stood  firm  in  his 
belief  that  the  election  of  Lincoln  alone  did  not  jus 
tify  the  South's  withdrawing  from  the  Union:  he  was 
ever  intent  on  supporting  the  constitutional  effective 
ness  of  the  Government.  He  was  firm  in  his  belief 
that  the  South,  and  especially  his  own  State,  Georgia, 
should,  to  the  very  extreme  limit  of  the  situation, 
abide  by  all  national  engagements.  Though  he 
doubted  Lincoln,  he  would  wait  until  Lincoln  justified 
that  doubt.  In  the  House  of  Representatives  of 
Georgia,  interrupted  now  and  again  by  Toombs,  who 
then,  during  November,  1860,  could  see  nothing  but 
ruin  with  the  success  of  the  Black  Republicans,  Ste 
phens  stood  calmly  presenting  the  logic  which  would 
hold  back,  for  the  time  being,  the  spirit  of  disunion. 
So  long  as  Georgia  was  sovereign,  there  was  no  reason 
to  look  for  any  other  safeguard  than  sovereignty. 
Thus  far,  so  Stephens  tried  to  show, — and  in  doing  so 
he  aimed  to  counteract  Toombs'  final  arguments  that 
the  Union  had  been  a  curse, — the  "  compact "  had 


CIVIL    WAR    PERIOD  309 

proven  beneficial;  Georgia's  wealth  had  steadily  in 
creased. 

Stephens  recognized  the  numberless  grievances  held 
by  the  South  against  the  North;  he  simply  advised 
waiting  for  an  act  of  aggression;  he  saw  that  in  the 
North,  all  obligations  attached  to  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law  had  been  disregarded.  If  the  South's  grievances 
continued  to  be  ignored,  if  through  the  efforts  of  a 
convention  no  adjustment  was  reached,  then  he  was 
willing  to  abide  by  the  Georgia  Platform  of  1850, 
which  practically  meant  secession. 

Altogether,  it  was  from  such  sterling  qualities  as 
Stephens  displayed,  that  the  South  drew  greatest 
strength  after  the  surrender  of  Lee.  He  never  abated 
in  his  unswerving  desire  to  stop  hostilities;  he  even 
voted  against  secession  at  the  time  Georgia  determined 
to  withdraw  from  the  Union.  Called  to  the  councils  of 
the  newly  formed  Confederate  Government,  he  was 
largely  instrumental  in  basing  the  Constitution  on  the 
old  instrument.  With  reluctance,  he  consented  to  join 
the  cabinet  of  President  Davis,  though  it  was  found 
that  they  were  to  disagree  on  details  which  necessarily 
were  opposed,  considering  the  primary  views  of  each. 
He  was  foremost  in  the  efforts  for  peace — a  move 
ment  which  partly  grew  out  of  the  seceding  States' 
distrust  of  the  growing  power  of  the  Confederate 
Government.  In  the  midst  of  threatening  gloom 
which  portended  Reconstruction,  he  counseled  the 
Georgians  to  accept  the  inevitable.  Only  when  the 
policy  of  Congress  became  excessive  did  he  make  the 
pessimistic,  though  none  the  less  apparent,  prediction 
at  the  time,  that  American  constitutional  liberty  was 
dead.  He  was  brave  in  the  utterance  of  his  views ; 
his  history  represents  an  attempt  to  hold  passion  in 
abeyance  to  truth  as  he  saw  it.  In  the  Southern  Re 
view  Bledsoe  attacked  him,  and  he  was  ready  with 
his  "The  Reviewers  Reviewed." 

In  the  light  of  Southern  civilization,  the  biographies 


3io    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

of  the  three  men  we  have  thus  mentioned  as  the 
prime  factors  in  the  agitation  for  secession  take  on 
significant  color;  the  volumes  contain  excellent  data 
for  future  constructive  writing;  extensive  excerpts 
from  sources  not  accessible  to  everyone,  make  a  com 
plete  portrait  possible.  One  does  not  have  to  accept 
the  fulsomeness  of  DuBose's  estimate  of  Yancey,  or 
of  Johnston's  personal  admiration  of  Stephens,  but 
the  first-hand  material,  however  loosely  hung  together, 
is  made  secure.  Stephens'  autobiographical  notes  are 
representative  of  the  Southerners'  habit  of  mind. 

Each  State  had  its  leaders  who  did  quite  as  much 
as  Yancey,  Toombs,  and  Stephens  in  the  councils  of 
their  separate  legislatures;  but  these  three  men  went 
outside  of  their  special  area,  and  in  their  persons  be 
came  symbolic  of  the  Southern  cause.  It  is  well  to 
bear  in  mind  the  stress  under  which  they  worked,  so 
that  we  may  appreciate  to  the  full  extent  the  tre 
mendous  solemnity  of  that  terrible  moment  when  the 
Southern  Senators  withdrew  from  the  Senate  Cham 
ber,  as  each  State  proclaimed  its  ordinance  of  seces 
sion. 


In  some  respects,  these  men  of  the  secession  period 
followed  in  the  footsteps  of  their  predecessors.  The 
sovereign  States  had  but  one  way  of  rewarding  serv 
ice,  and  that  was  by  continued  exaction  of  service. 
No  sooner  was  Stephens  relieved  from  the  confine 
ment  of  prison  \vhere  the  leading  "rebels"  were 
thrown  when  caught,  than  Georgia  sent  him  to  Con 
gress;  while  in  1873  he  was  defeated  for  the  Senate 
by  General  John  B.  Gordon,  he  remained  in  Congress 
until  he  was  called  to  be  Governor  in  1882.  Toombs 
likewise  found  much  to  do  for  his  State,  though  he 
was  deprived  of  wider  service  because  of  his  refusal, 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD  311 

like  Davis,  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance.  The  sur 
face  indication  of  the  effect  of  withdrawal  is  contained 
in  "  The  Bonnie  Blue  Flag/'  with  words  by  no  means 
classic,  and  with  historical  progression  by  no  means 
accurate.  In  the  States  that  would  not  at  first  aid 
the  Confederacy,  tragedies  were  enacted  that  drew 
upon  all  of  a  man's  fortitude  and  courage;  for  in 
stance,  the  decision  of  Lee,  and  the  loneliness  of  Breck- 
inridge,  of  Kentucky,  who  saw  his  associates  leave  the 
Senate  one  by  one,  and  who  stood  alone,  combating 
measures  directed  against  the  South,  until  he  resigned 
his  political  trust  to  enter  the  field. 

The  farewell  speeches  of  the  Southern  Senators 
epitomize  the  Southern  view  in  favor  of  secession; 
they  mark  the  individual  bearing  of  the  men  in  whom 
the  States  were  represented.  The  eloquence  and  dignity 
of  Benjamin  could  not  have  been  assumed  on  the 
moment;  the  defiant  picturesqueness  of  Toombs  was 
an  embodiment  of  his  whole  political  attitude — heated 
argument,  though  not  devoid  of  close  reasoning  and 
certain  judgment,  of  watchful  defence  and  positive 
control  of  facts.  Perhaps  the  one  showing  most  feel 
ing  and  a  flavor  of  the  old-time  formal  repression  was 
Davis,  who  did  not  argue  as  Toombs  did,  but  who 
withdrew  after  a  concise  statement  of  Mississippi's 
sovereign  decision  and  of  his  own  opinion  as  to  the 
significance  of  the  "  compact"  and  of  secession  which 
was  opposed  to  nullification.  These  speeches  repre 
sent  a  decisive  moment;  they  were  not  the  enraged 
outbursts  of  unthinking  men;  they  should  be  regarded 
as  the  culmination  of  a  long  series  of  debates  in  which 
the  antagonism  against  the  South  on  the  part  of  its 
opposers  was  greater  than  the  desire  for  reconciliation. 

Most  of  these  details  belong  to  history  and  not  to 
literature;  in  a  way  they  explain  why  the  Southern 
people  were  not  deeply  concerned  with  the  production 
of  books;  in  a  way  they  likewise  suggest  the  motives 


312    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

likely  to  actuate  any  writing  which  might  be  done  dur 
ing  the  actual  operation  of  that  social  spirit.  As 
events  transpired,  they  accentuated  a  body  of  tradi 
tion  which  is  influential  to-day.  Notwithstanding  the 
personal  equation,  when  the  Southern  Senators  took 
their  leave  they  were  the  most  conservative  expression 
of  the  feeling  in  the  South.  The  new  government 
which  was  formed, — with  Montgomery  as  the  first 
seat, — and  the  exactions  of  a  state  of  war  must  have 
had  considerable  effect,  and  must  have  made  distinct 
impress  upon  the  Southern  manner  of  looking  at  things 
and  of  meeting  situations. 

The  anti-slavery  movement  in  the  South  was  strong 
— one  of  the  reasons  being  that  religious  sentiment 
was  strong,  but  not  the  least  explanation  for  it  being 
that  the  Southerner  was  beginning  to  recognize  the 
limitations  of  forced  labor,  and  its  blighting  effects 
upon  the  stronger  race.  The  section  was  in  a  disposi 
tion  to  listen  to  compromise  on  that  issue,  but  the 
constitutional  right  of  secession  it  would  not  re 
linquish,  and  upon  that  point  stood  unmoved. 

J.  L.  M.  Curry,  who  was  a  Representative  in  the 
Confederate  Congress,  prepared  a  constitutional  analy 
sis  of  the  legality  of  secession,  which,  in  view  of  his 
progressive  foresight  after  the  war,  we  shall  take  as 
expressing  the  argument  in  fair  terms ;  at  least  by  his 
effort  he  counteracted  his  own  criticism  that  "  the 
Southern  States  have  shared  the  fate  of  all  conquered 
peoples.  The  conquerors  write  their  history."  First 
of  all,  in  the  original  compact  there  was  a  common 
recognition  of  the  equality  and  unrelinquished  sover 
eignty  of  the  parties  concerned;  and  inasmuch  as 
the  Confederation  found  it  more  effective  to  regulate 
certain  business  transactions  as  a  single  body,  they 
created  a  constitution  which  in  no  way  sacrificed 
their  separate  initiative,  inasmuch  as  the  Constitution 
was  an  instrument  of  their  own  making.  This  ar- 


CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD  313 

gument  did  not  foresee  that  the  growth  of  the  condi 
tions  necessitating  their  initial  acceptance  of  a  common 
code  meant  the  relinquishment  of  further  power,  as 
the  importance  of  the  country  increased.  It  is  to  be 
remembered  that  New  York  was  particularly  zealous 
about  guarding  sovereign  prerogative. 

Granted  that  such  be  the  case,  the  next  argument 
was  that  the  people  of  each  State  reserved  to  them 
selves  the  privilege  of  stating  when  the  Constitution 
committed  infractions,  and  within  their  own  borders 
they  were  at  liberty  to  exercise  their  fundamental 
authority.  Thus  we  can  see  in  this  arrangement  the 
opportunity  for  sectionalism  to  produce  the  spirit  of 
disunion.  In  1860,  these  were  minor  parts  in  which 
the  seceding  States  disagreed ;  they  were  divided  among 
themselves,  until  all  political  policies  were  dropped 
in  the  cause  of  common  protection.  Had  there  been 
no  war,  or  as  an  historian  recently  declared,  had  there 
been  no  Lincoln,  the  economic  and  social  problems  in 
the  South  would  not  have  changed  so  radically.  But 
while  the  war  settled  slavery,  though  it  left  the  negro 
in  &  more  precarious  position,  it  never  dispelled  the 
theories  of  states'  rights,  which  have  now  spread  to 
the  Pacific  Coast.  The  two  positive  effects  of  the  war 
were  the  shifting  of  industrial  bases  in  the  South,  and 
a  firmer  recognition  of  the  necessity  for  union — 
well  illustrated  in  the  Spanish-American  conflict. 

So  individual  was  the  State  policy,  that  Curry  illus 
trates  its  existence  by  quoting  two  citizens  of  South 
Carolina  who  emphatically  declined  positions  on  the 
Supreme  Court  bench  because  such  would  be  beneath 
the  dignity  of  a  servant  of  the  State.  Was  the  Con 
stitution  to  be  a  myth,  a  convenience,  or  a  power, — 
and  therefore  a  menace?  The  State  was  both  right 
and  wrong;  its  logic,  however,  did  not  reckon  with 
temperamental  variation,  which  after  a  while  grew 
into  sectional  differences  leading  to  discrimination. 


314    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

The  Southerners,  differing  with  the  North  and  being 
in  the  minority,  determined,  as  lovers  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  to  resume  their  sovereign  rights,  and,  by  with 
drawing,  to  deny  the  existence  of  a  union  which  only 
existed  so  long  as  the  obligations  of  the  Constitution 
were  maintained.  That  they  had  faith  in  the  instru 
ment  was  clearly  demonstrated  by  the  Confederate 
Constitution,  which  was  in  substance  the  old  document 
modified  to  meet  Southern  ideas.  Granted  finally  that 
this  was  so,  secession  was  the  right  of  each  separate 
State  whose  action  might  not  be  disputed  by  law. 
There  is  much  truth  in  Curry's  statement  that  "  no 
one  would  now  hazard  the  assertion  that  if  the  South 
ern  States  had  acquiesced  in  the  result  of  the  elections 
of  1860,  the  equality  and  rights  of  the  Southern  States 
could  have  continued  unimpaired  by  the  unfriendly 
action  of  the  Government  at  Washington  and  of  the 
Northern  States." 

VI 

We  are  dealing  with  something  more  than  mere 
record  when  we  attempt  to  realize  the  spirit  which 
moved  the  first  Confederate  Convention,  assembled 
in  Montgomery  on  February  4,  1861.  To  judge  its  dig 
nity  and  its  sense  of  deep  responsibility,  one  must  con 
cur  with  the  historian  in  the  belief  that  the  time  should 
be  measured  in  terms  of  issues  which,  though  now 
dead,  were  then  active  enough  to  limit  and  to  con 
sume  the  whole  thought  of  a  section.  Curry  was 
right  in  saying  that  "  it  would  be  as  easy  for  a  French 
Liberal  of  to-day  to  make  himself  a  Monarchist  of 
the  time  of  Louis  XIV.,  or  for  an  English  or  German 
Protestant  to  accept  and  adopt  the  creed  and  ritual 
and  policy  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  of  the  time 
of  Leo  X.,  as  for  an  American  citizen  to  recognize  and 
vindicate  what  the  Constitution  guaranteed  as  to 
slavery  in  1860."  To  the  Southerner,  the  Union  as 


CIVIL  WAR    PERIOD  315 

it  then  existed  was  incompatible  with  the  principles 
for  which  the  past  statesmen  had  fought.  The  whole 
tenor  of  Stephens'  account  of  the  "War  between  the 
States"  was  to  show  that  slavery  constituted  but 
one  factor  in  the  problems  which  lay  at  the  very 
basis  of  social  existence  and  of  economic  independence. 
In  view  of  the  unthinking  reconstruction  measures, 
it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  representatives  of  the  Con 
federate  States  were  much  surer  of  their  goal  at  the 
time  of  secession  than  the  officials  of  the  United  States 
government  were  of  theirs  when  the  war  ended.  The 
act  of  secession  was  much  more  legal  than  the  act  of 
emancipation,  even  though  for  the  time  being  it  was 
less  disintegrating  in  its  effect.  For  even  though  freed 
from  the  actual  chains  of  bondage,  the  negro,  until 
demoralized  by  the  Republican  bestowal  of  excessive 
privilege  upon  him,  was  still  under  the  good  influence 
of  plantation  training.  The  very  fact  that  emancipa 
tion  did  not  immediately  lead  to  insurrection,  that 
white  women  were  safe  among  the  blacks  while  the 
white  men  were  on  the  field  of  battle,  is  sufficient  proof 
of  this. 

The  Confederate  Convention  was  not  a  lawless 
body;  the  Confederate  armies  were  not  disorganized 
aggregates  of  purposeless  men.  Mr.  Brown  is  epi 
grammatic  in  his  true  statement  that  if  we  apply  the 
term  "  Rebellion  "  to  this  struggle,  we  approach  dan 
gerously  near  the  point  where  we  glorify  rebellion. 
The  South  had  a  grievance,  and  largely  a  just  griev 
ance,  not  against  the  Constitution,  but  against  the  man 
ner  in  which  it  had  been  perverted.  This  motive 
prompted  the  assembly  to  indorse  most  of  the  princi 
ples  which  had  heretofore  governed  them.  Curry  is 
much  too  lenient,  however,  in  explaining  the  absence 
of  brilliant  statesmanship  in  the  Confederate  body; 
he  claimed  that  community  of  interests  was  enough 
to  hold  together  a  section  whose  unpreparedness  was 


3i6    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

token  of  belief  that  peace  would  soon  follow  secession. 
They  did  not  seek  war ;  they  wished  only  a  government 
which  would  fulfill  their  needs.  In  this  spirit,  they 
set  about  framing  a  Confederate  Constitution. 

Curry's  analysis  of  the  Southern  temper  is  particu 
larly  suggestive;  he  points  to  the  fact  that,  with  every 
opportunity  for  the  adoption  of  rash  methods,  the 
seceded  States  carefully  considered  the  questions  of 
reform  they  had  demanded  in  Washington ;  they  were 
at  the  time  surprisingly  free  from  party  designs.  Not 
only  that,  but  there  was  no  attempt  on  their  part  to 
reopen  the  slave  trade,  which  further  demonstrates 
that  evolution  of  Southern  opinion  against  the  bond 
age  of  the  black  race  which  would  have  come  without 
secession.  The  war  only  hastened  emancipation,  with 
out  preparing  any  adequate  mental  policy  to  cope 
with  it. 

The  open  acts  of  hostility  served  to  hasten  the  se 
cession  of  the  States.  Virginia,  at  first  hesitant,  deter 
mined  to  withdraw,  after  her  Governor  refused  to 
supply  troops  at  Lincoln's  call.  The  border  States 
were  uncertain  factors,  often  divided  and  wavering, 
encouraging  and  repudiating,  as  in  the  case  of  Tennes 
see,  and  hence  giving  little  moral  strength  to  the  cause. 

Davis's  Inaugural  Address  was  dignified  but  un- 
impassioned ;  his  chief  concern  was  to  put  the  wheels 
of  government  in  motion,  wheels  which  were  familiar 
to  the  people,  but  whose  motion  was  entrusted  to 
new  agents.  Stephens,  in  March,  1861,  expressed 
himself  publicly  on  the  subject  of  the  Confederate 
Constitution.  It  is  his  temper  rather  than  his  argu 
ment  which  is  significant — the  inclination  to  criticise 
and  to  endorse  in  the  same  breath.  His  limitation 
was  sectional ;  he  believed  that  the  fulfillment  of  South 
ern  requirements  would  have  settled  once  and  for  all 
the  differences  on  the  subject  of  policy.  To  him  the 
Confederate  Constitution  put  at  rest  the  disputes  about 


CIVIL  WAR    PERIOD  317 

tariff  and  internal  improvement,  stating  its  unshak 
able  belief  in  the  inferiority  of  the  negro  to  the  white 
man,  and  to  him  slavery  was  in  accordance  with  the 
demands  of  nature.  His  conversion  to  the  cause  of 
secession  was  slow  and  sincere,  and,  when  he  addressed 
the  citizens  of  Savannah  in  1861,  he  foresaw  the  dis 
integration  of  the  Union,  and  the  ultimate  increase  of 
the  new  Confederacy  whose  Constitution  was  more 
adequate  to  him  for  national  existence  than  the  old 
instrument  itself.  In  view  of  these  confident  opinions, 
the  manner  in  which  the  South  met  defeat  is  all  the 
more  remarkable. 

VII 

Alt  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  the  South's 
greatest  asset  was  in  manhood ;  the  manner  in  which 
the  armies  faced  privation  and  death,  the  way  in  which 
they  counteracted  their  deficiency  in  numbers  by  ex 
cellence  of  generalship  on  one  hand  and  by  the  per 
sonal  aspect  of  the  cause  for  which  they  were  fight 
ing  on  the  other,  are  epic  in  their  force.  There  were 
mistaken  ideas  about  the  duration  of  the  conflict  at 
first;  the  North  miscalculated  the  spirit  of  its  oppo 
nents,  the  South  overestimated  its  defensive  strength. 
As  late  as  1864,  Professor  L.  Johnson,  of  Trinity 
College,  North  Carolina,  prepared  a  sectional  arith 
metic,  in  which  the  following  problem  indicates  the 
height  of  Southern  confidence:  "  If  one  Confederate 
soldier  can  whip  seven  Yankees,  how  many  soldiers 
can  whip  49  Yankees?" 

Families  dedicated  their  all  in  the  defense  of  their 
homes;  the  enemy  was  invading  the  very  soil  made 
sacred  by  the  institutions  which  outsiders  were  seek 
ing  to  destroy;  students  left  colleges,  ministers  gave 
up  their  pulpits,  to  go  to  the  front.  Among  the  men 
there  was  manifest  a  religious  fervor  which  has  never 
been  wanting  in  the  South,  but  which  was  somewhat 


318    THE   LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

obscured  at  times  by  the  outward  forms  leading  to 
opposition.  The  Rev.  J.  W.  Jones  compiled  a  curi 
ously  interesting  volume  of  experiences  entitled 
"  Christ  in  the  Camp ;  or,  Religion  in  Lee's  Army," 
which  spreads  some  light  on  the  spiritual  condition  of 
the  soldiers.  The  Southern  leaders  were  men  of  Chris 
tian  character — men  typified  in  the  persons  of  Lee  and 
Jackson;  Bishop  Polk  left  his  duties  in  Georgia  to 
assume  the  rank  of  Lieutenant-General.  Stragglers 
in  the  faith  were  converted  on  the  field,  and  were 
sustained  by  the  example  of  "  Stonewall "  Jackson  on 
his  knees  in  his  tent. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  South  was  encouraged  by 
the  hope  that  the  world's  dependence  on  cotton  would 
hasten  diplomatic  relations  which  would  be  of  inesti 
mable  advantage  to  the  cause.  It  is  true  that  England 
did  have  some  sympathy  with  the  secession  move 
ment,  but  her  attitude  against  slavery,  together  with 
the  effective  Union  blocking  of  all  European  recogni 
tion  of  the  Confederacy,  served  to  check  any  positive 
support  on  her  part.  Many  debates  took  place  in  the 
House  of  Commons  as  to  whether  the  seceded  States 
should  be  regarded  as  a  nation ;  but  the  embassy  sent 
by  Toombs  to  London  for  the  purpose  of  negotiation 
f'-resaw  the  strength  of  moral  opposition  to  servitude. 
Yancey  \vas  a  member  of  that  commission.  Mason 
and  Slidell  in  England  and  France,  Mann  in  Belgium, 
Rost  in  Spain,  L.  Q.  C.  Lamar  in  Russia,  all  struggled 
in  vain  for  the  cause;  they  could  not  even  obtain  an 
audible  objection  from  the  nations  to  the  blockade, 
which  England  for  example  did  not  consider  suffi 
ciently  effective  to  necessitate  intervention. 

We  infer  that  our  representatives  were  not  familiar 
with  foreign  diplomacy;  they  were  simply  special 
pleaders  before  the  world.  Perhaps,  had  reverses  not 
befallen  Lee  in  his  onward  march  to  Washington, 
France  might  have  declared  for  the  Confederacy,  but 


CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD  319 

the  foreigners  did  not  have  sufficient  at  stake  to  come 
to  the  rescue  in  a  losing  game.  So  determined  was 
the  stand  against  slavery  that  Southern  attention  was 
now  turned  toward  the  question  of  emancipation;  the 
hope  for  diplomatic  success  was  based  on  this  one 
point.  Even  in  1864,  Davis  recommended  the  enlist 
ment  of  negroes,  and  Benjamin  attempted  to  nego 
tiate  a  loan  "  on  the  basis  of  emancipation  and  promise 
of  cotton."  But  as  far  as  diplomatic  aid  was  con 
cerned,  the  South  was  "  fooled  "  wherever  she  turned. 
She  was  reaping  the  effects  of  slavery  from  a  world 
point  of  view.  The  Confederate  Government  was  not 
squarely  met  in  any  of  its  diplomatic  advances,  from 
the  time  that  Martin  J.  Crawford  of  Georgia,  John 
Forsyth  of  Alabama,  and  A.  B.  Roman  of  Louisiana 
were  sent  to  Washington,  in  1861,  as  peace  commis 
sioners.  It  was  hardly  compatible  with  the  sovereignty 
of  the  United  States  that  she  should  recognize  a  re 
calcitrant  section  of  the  country,  and  Seward  prac 
ticed  duplicity,  instead  of  seeking  earnestly  to  discover 
some  effective  means  of  adjustment.  But  the  strength 
of  outside  support  was  removed  from  the  South;  in 
the  words  of  Charles  Francis  Adams:  "The  move 
ments  of  both  science  and  civilization  were  behind 
the  nationalists."  The  South  had  now  to  face  the 
material  demands  of  war;  no  time  was  left  for  fine 
constitutional  distinctions. 


VIII 

It  is  difficult  to  imagine  what  the  South  would 
have  done  without  the  moral  and  practical  support 
of  its  women;  theirs  was  the  most  exacting  task. 
The  historian  may  seek  a  more  official  expression  of 
the  precarious  life  of  the  Confederacy,  but  no  more 
human,  more  vivid  descriptions  of  privation  and  want 
and  anxiety  are  to  be  had  than  those  impressions  of 


320    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

the  women  of  the  South,  now  published  in  book  form. 
Mrs.  Preston,  Mrs.  Pryor,  Mrs.  Clay-Clopton,  are  rep 
resentatives  of  their  class,  as  well  as  M.  L.  Avary,  who 
wrote  "A  Virginia  Girl  in  the  Civil  War."  The  ten 
sion  and  tragedy  of  the  moment  are  likewise  revealed 
in  such  romances  as  Cable's  "  Kinkaid's  Battery"  and 
Miss  Glasgow's  "  The  Battleground."  As  John  Esten 
Cooke  wrote  in  his  "  Wearing  of  the  Gray,"  a  volume 
of  personal  portraits  which  he  dedicated  to  that  cava 
lier,  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  the  Civil  War  was  not  wholly 
an  "official  transaction,"  but  a  drama  of  life  and  pas 
sion  and  movement. 

The  most  difficult  factors  to  reconstruct  in  the 
Southern  social  life  were  the  women.  George  Cary 
Eggleston  is  not  alone  in  his  belief  that  a  thoroughly 
reconciled  woman-veteran  is  difficult  to  find;  often  the 
humor  of  the  attitude  was  unthinking,  as  when  the 
old  lady  regretted  that  Yankees  had  to  be  killed  for 
fear  they  might  go  to  heaven.  But  there  was  no  tell 
ing  what  amount  of  endurance  women  experienced 
for  the  cause;  they  risked  their  personal  safety  when 
escapes  had  to  be  made,  they  bore  the  long  suspense 
and  uncertainty  of  news,  they  were  fearless  under 
fire  and  quick  in  the  hospital;  they  faced  the  over 
whelming  signs  of  death,  and,  what  was  more  to  the 
soldiers,  they  had  implicit  trust  in  the  men  whom  they 
sent  to  the  field. 

In  some  cities,  these  women  banded  themselves  into 
secret  societies,  partly  for  actual  service  and  partly 
for  social  intercourse.  This  was  necessary  where,  for 
instance,  Alexandria,  Va.,  was  torn  in  sympathy  be 
tween  the  Union  and  the  State.  A  few  lines  in  an 
oath  of  initiation  will  bear  testimony  of  the  feeling: 

"  I  swear  that  I  will  not  marry  one  who  has  borne 
arms  for  the  United  States  against  the  Confederate 
States,  nor  a  Union  man  nor  a  Black  Republican  nor  a 
traitor.  So  help  me  God !  " 


CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD  321 

The  bitterness,  which  in  a  way  was  righteous,  even 
entered  the  Episcopal  service,  where  all  reference  to 
the  President  was  omitted,  bringing  the  wrath  of  the 
Yankee  soldiers  upon  the  congregation  to  such  an 
extent  that  an  attempt  was  made  to  enforce  the  proper 
reading  of  the  ritual. 

Whatever  strong  lines  of  social  caste  among  women 
may  have  been  drawn  before  the  war,  the  stress  of 
actual  conflict  soon  served  to  eliminate:  both  practical 
service  and  the  common  utterance  of  prayer  helped  to 
draw  the  women  closer  together;  each  class  soon 
brought  into  play  the  best  qualities  of  the  other.  There 
was  large  and  varied  work  to  be  done;  many  a 
man  might  have  held  back  had  not  a  woman's 
love  and  faith  pushed  him  forward;  while  he  was 
away,  he  could  image  to  himself  his  land  being  cared 
for  as  well  as  conditions  would  allow,  food  being 
hoarded  for  him,  clothes  however  crude  being  fash 
ioned  for  him.  It  was  a  woman  who  tended  him  in 
the  final  hour;  a  woman's  letter  sent  him  determined 
through  shot  and  shell.  Her  work  perhaps  was  not 
so  much  active  duty,  as  silent  and  slow  ingenuity;  no 
one  could  quite  lift  the  pressure  of  dread  from  her 
as  she  sat  rolling  bandages  or  sewing  powder  bags  and 
loading  cartridges.  Alone  she  had  to  face  marauding 
blue  coats ;  often  she  was  closely  cross-examined  and 
her  cleverness  had  to  evade  searching  eyes,  if  by 
chance  she  possessed  any  secret  information.  For 
a  woman  was  often  called  upon  to  slip  through  the 
lines  as  bearer  of  dispatches. 

To  what  extent  the  feminine  ingenuity  was  pressed, 
is  fairly  indicated  by  the  following  paragraph :  "  The 
dirt  floor  of  the  meat  house  was  boiled  for  the  salt  in 
it ;  soap  made  from  China-berries  and  lye ;  candles  out 
of  a  resin  or  waxen  rope  wound  around  a  corncob; 
ink  out  of  oak-balls,  small  berries,  and  rusty  nails; 
pins  out  of  thorns;  shoes  out  of  canvas  and  carriage 


THE   LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

and  with  wooden  bottoms;  buttons  out  of  persim 
mon  seed ;  dyes  out  of  roots  and  barks ;  tumblers  out 
of  glass  bottles,  cut  smooth  with  a  heated  wire;  en 
velopes  from  scraps  of  wall  paper;  tea  out  of  berry 
leaves ;  coffee  out  of  sweet  potatoes,  dandelion  seed, 
ground  nuts,  etc." 

Eggleston's  "  Rebel's  Recollections  "  are  full  of  the 
atmosphere  of  the  period,  but  a  little  sweeping  in  their 
estimate  of  Southern  motives ;  the  Southern  cause  was 
not  wholly  involved  in  a  futile  abstraction,  and  the 
oratory  of  secession  was  not  entirely  without  reason, 
though  much  of  it  was  vacuous.  Speaking  for  Vir 
ginia,  he  describes  amusingly  how  enlistment  at  first 
was  carried  on  in  holiday  fashion,  much  like  the  State 
encampments  of  the  present.  He  noted  in  the  Virginia 
ranks  the  faint  distinction  between  officer  and  private, 
since  both  wrere  gentlemen ;  the  one  wide  demarkation 
was  between  the  gentry  and  common  people — that  line 
still  persisted,  even  though  the  common  man  might  be 
of  superior  rank.  If  rough  work  was  to  be  done  in 
camp,  a  private  often  had  his  servant  perform  the  duty 
in  his  stead. 

As  the  war  advanced,  the  stress  and  strain  became 
greater ;  larger  demands  were  made  upon  the  resources 
of  the  Confederacy,  the  gravest  consideration  being 
the  question  of  finances,  for  the  currency  was  without 
value  and  the  custom-duties  were  decreased  through 
the  vigilance  of  the  blockade.  In  immediate  efficiency, 
the  South  was  unprepared  for  war;  there  was  suffi 
cient  food  and  large  quantities  of  raw  material,  but 
the  means  of  manufacture  were  inadequate.  In  view 
of  this  condition,  what  was  actually  done  seems  excep 
tional.  Furnaces,  mills,  railroads,  and  like  factors 
could  not  be  placed  immediately  at  the  disposal  of  the 
( luvcrnment.  According  to  Brown,  it  was  this  defi 
ciency  which  detracted  from  the  value  of  whatever 
resources  the  South  had.  "  At  the  surrender,"  writes 


CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD  323 

Curry,  "  there  was  on  the  line  of  railways  and  rivers, 
between  Jackson,  Miss.,  and  Montgomery,  Ala., 
enough  corn  to  supply  the  demand  for  breadstuffs  for 
a  full  twelve  month  or  more."  In  other  words,  war 
calls  for  industrialism,  and  the  South  could  not  meet 
the  call,  for  obvious  reasons.  The  armies  went  thread 
bare,  and  the  men  were  lacking  in  the  necessary  small 
arms.  The  handling  of  the  resources,  of  which  taxa 
tion  was  the  most  precarious  question  since  it  brought 
the  Confederacy  into  opposition  with  the  seceded 
States,  revealed  the  inherent  weakness  of  the  new  Gov 
ernment.  Necessity  resulted  in  forced  loans,  inflated 
currency,  superfluous  issuance  of  notes ;  and  in  conse 
quence,  prices  rose  to  an  abnormal  height.  By  1864, 
a  gold  dollar  had  increased  in  value  to  sixty-one,  paper 
money;  the  whole  state  of  affairs  resulted  in  specula 
tion,  in  the  demoralization  of  wages.  Value  lost  its 
significance,  and  what  was  asked,  was  paid.  These 
weaknesses  brought  disfavor  upon  the  Confederate 
Government,  and  especially  upon  the  head  of  Davis, 
who  clogged  the  wheels  with  an  unnecessary  system  of 
red  tape.  Moreover,  it  became  essential  to  resort  to 
trade  through  the  lines,  and  the  Confederacy,  from 
strenuously  forbidding  it,  passed  through  the  stage  of 
silent  acquiescence  to  actual  speculation  in  United 
States  notes. 

Speculation,  affecting  the  social  life  rather  than  the 
political  solvency  of  the  people,  was  nowhere  better 
exhibited  than  when  a  blockade  was  successfully  run. 
Much  cotton  slipped  through  the  lines  and  found  its 
way,  by  an  indirect  route — often  across  the  Mexican 
border — to  Europe.  Companies  were  formed  in  Vir 
ginia  and  South  Carolina  to  trade  in  this  arduous 
manner ;  and  a  reading  of  William  Watson's  "  Block 
ade  Runner  "  will  afford  some  idea  of  how  uncertain 
the  outcome  was. 

The  economic  question  was  the  one  absorbing  topic 


324    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

of  the  day;  in  1863,  Mrs.  Preston  paid  five  dollars  a 
bushel  for  potatoes;  after  a  long  drive  to  Eufala,  Ala., 
• — all  of  the  inland  towns  suffered  most  from  the  ef 
fects  of  the  blockade, — a  lady  succeeded  in  purchasing 
a  half-quire  of  small  white  note  paper  for  forty  dollars, 
while  such  a  luxury  as  a  pair  of  morocco  gaiters 
brought  the  exorbitant  price  of  $375.  Though  the 
Government  had  conflict  with  the  States  regarding  for 
eign  trade,  official  control  was  maintained  to  the  end. 
Whatever  goods  were  not  used  by  the  Confederacy 
direct  were  sold  at  auction,  the  merchants  reaping  a 
fortune,  as  they  proceeded  inland  from  such  ports  as 
Mobile.  And  it  is  a  curious  anomaly  that  despite  the 
dire  need  for  certain  essentials  other  than  medicines, 
the  speculative  "  runners  "  brought  in  more  luxuries 
with  the  hope  of  greater  temptations  as  a  consequence. 
By  a  system  of  exorbitant  demands  on  the  part  of  the 
importer,  specie  was  drawn  away  from  general  cir 
culation.  From  these  consequences,  Fleming  is  right 
in  surmising  that  the  Union  navy  crushed  the  South, 
the  blockade  runners  by  their  activity  prolonging  the 
war  over  a  year.  The  system  of  smuggling  became 
so  general  that  it  soon  had  a  demoralizing  effect  upon 
the  people. 

But  though  provisions  were  scarce  at  times,  the 
Southerner  was  an  adept  at  finding  substitutes.  Often, 
in  order  to  lift  the  weight  of  anxiety,  pleasures  were 
devised  from  the  simplest  duties ;  even  the  "  home 
made"  luxuries  assumed  elegant  proportions,  and  to 
day  no  better  fan  may  be  had  than  that  which,  formed 
of  turkey-wing  feathers,  sold  in  war  times  for  ten  or 
twenty  dollars  apiece.  We  read  descriptions  of  an 
inland  quiet  in  the  South  which  meant  aloofness,  iso 
lation,  and  where  the  word  Yankee  was  mentioned  in 
folk-tales  to  frighten  children  into  behavior. 

The  rudimentary  industry  thus  indicated  constituted 


CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD  325 

only  one  phase  of  activity;  war  necessitated  some  or 
ganized  method  of  meeting  military  needs  and  general 
demand.  The  Government  itself  partly  encouraged 
production,  offering  loans  for  the  manufacture  of  arms. 
Records  indicate  that  the  48th  Alabama,  while  defend 
ing  Mobile,  was  supplied  with  pikes  and  bowie  knives. 
Each  State  was  thus  forced  to  exert  itself;  so  well  was 
the  condition  satisfied  that  Selma,  Alabama,  soon  be 
came  famed  for  its  cannon.  Powder  mills  sprang  up 
in  every  section,  while  organized  parties,  directing 
negro  labor,  began  a  systematic  search  for  niter.  The 
Confederacy  likewise  encouraged  the  iron  industry, 
especially  in  upper  Alabama,  and  labor  was  easily  pro 
cured  for  the  mines,  since  the  conscripts  were  only 
too  eager  to  escape  the  field.  According  to  Fleming, 
the  fine  quality  of  iron  found  in  Selma  at  the  close  of 
the  war  first  induced  Northern  capitalists  to  make  in 
vestments  in  the  iron  industry  of  Northern  Alabama. 
The  Government  not  only  found  it  essential  to  en 
courage  improvement,  but  the  States  likewise  aided 
manufactures  by  legislative  act;  those  engaged 
in  the  work  of  production  were  exempt  from  mili 
tary  service.  Cotton  factories  were  burned  by  the 
Federals,  and  iron  foundries  blown  up ;  the  South  had 
difficulty  in  protecting  its  resources. 

With  all  these  uncertain  conditions,  the  war  sapped 
the  energies  of  the  people ;  the  hold  of  the  Government 
upon  the  State  became  more  and  more  irksome  as 
rigorous  exactions  were  imposed.  Whenever  the  Con 
federacy  attempted  to  regulate  interstate  commerce,  to 
supervise  in  matters  purely  local,  to  make  profit  in 
instances  conflicting  with  the  interests  of  the  sovereign 
people,  and  to  draft  upon  the  State  militia,  there  were 
pronounced  opposition  and  ominous  dissatisfaction. 
Confederate  weakness  fostered  the  sentiment  for  a 
Peace  Party. 


326    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

IX 

The  literature  of  the  South  is  hardly  to  be  re 
garded  as  either  directive  or  progressive;  unlike  ora 
tory,  it  was  not  formative  of  opinion,  but  aimed  only 
to  preserve  the  pronounced  features  of  the  life  with 
which  it  was  so  intimately  connected.  If  any  new 
feature  is  to  be  detected  in  the  prose  work  of  the  Civil 
War  period,  it  is  that  to  the  retrospective  tendency 
already  fully  dealt  with,  might  be  added  a  realization 
of  changing  conditions  which  threatened  to  obliterate 
the  characteristics  distinguishing  the  Old  South. 

The  writers  with  whom  we  have  to  deal — many  of 
them — came  in  touch  with  the  newer  forces  which 
laid  hold  of  the  South ;  but  though  the  attention  may 
be  riveted  upon  new  things,  the  face  of  a  civilization 
is  not  changed  in  a  day.  Lee,  with  all  the  courtesy 
and  chivalry  and  wisdom  of  a  past  era,  could  not  repre 
sent  the  spirit  of  an  era  to  come;  he  was  the  flower 
of  his  period,  as  the  Constitutional  statesmen  were 
flowers  of  theirs ;  he  might  preach  forbearance  as  a 
way  of  coping  with  reconstruction,  but  it  was  the 
excellence  of  a  character  already  formed  out  of  an 
environment  different  from  the  present,  which  directed 
him.  And  other  generals  were  sustained  in  like  man 
ner,  an  old-time  flavor  coloring  their  letters  and  docu 
ments  of  war. 

Nowhere  shall  we  find  in  this  prose  literature  any 
book  of  exceptional  literary  excellence;  it  was,  how 
ever,  indicative  of  the  taste  of  Southern  readers — a 
taste  which  augmented  the  fortune  of  Augusta  Evans 
and  welcomed  John  Esten  Cooke.  There  was  not 
much  to  read  in  the  South  during  the  war ;  the  block 
ade  very  effectively  cut  off  the  supply,  and  necessitated 
a  local  output  which  is  more  interesting  in  its  history 
than  in  its  content. 

The  publishers  who  figured  in  those  days  below 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD  327 

the  Mason  and  Dixon  line  manufactured  many  volumes 
of  a  military  character,  printing  on  paper  made  from 
cotton  and  rags,  and,  because  of  the  chemical  crudity, 
resulting  in  a  poor  quality  of  finish.  Such  a  publisher 
as  S.  H.  Goetzel  of  Mobile  was  fortunate  enough  to 
secure  "  Macaria,"  and  to  be  the  first  to  place  Miss 
Muhlbach  on  the  American  market.  Many  Southern 
libraries  still  preserve  books  from  this  same  firm, 
bound,  for  want  of  better  covers,  in  gaily  figured  wall 
paper. 

Sporadic  novels  of  Confederate  life  were  hastily 
produced,  such  as  McCabe's  "The  Aide-de-Camp " 
and  Dimitry's  "  Guilty  or  Not  Guilty,"  while  Miss 
Braddon's  tales  were  circulated  in  the  army.  The  re 
prints  of  English  books  sold  at  exceptional  prices, 
Hugo's  "Les  Miserables,"  for  instance,  printed  in  five 
parts,  bringing  ten  dollars.  In  view  of  the  immediate 
need  for  quinine,  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that  extrav 
agance  would  follow  literary  channels,  yet  all  types  of 
books  were  printed,  and  many  sporadic  papers  and 
magazines  were  founded,  pledged  to  the  cause.  In  Sep 
tember,  1861,  the  Southern  Monthly  was  begun  in 
Memphis,  and  The  Age  (Richmond)  was  an  eclectic 
monthly  issued  (1864)  in  the  interests  of  the  South. 
Readers  had  the  weekly  Southern  Illustrated  Neivs, 
the  Southern  Punch,  and  the  Southern  Field  and  Fire 
side  (Augusta).  It  is  not  difficult  to  realize  the  strain 
under  which  these  publications  went  to  press,  type 
often  being  set  under  fire. 

The  fervor  of  Southern  sentiment  found  outlet  in 
songs;  Mr.  Snowden  states  that  a  firm  in  Richmond 
had  a  list  of  twenty-nine  lyrics  and  marches,  such  as 
the  ever-popular  "Lorena"  (Webster),  "The  South 
ern  Cross,"  with  words  by  St.  George  Tucker,  and 
"  When  this  Cruel  War  is  Over,"  the  music  for  which 
was  composed  by  Henry  Tucker.  In  educational  lines 
the  feeling  was  still  stronger,  the  Confederate  spelling 


328    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

books  and  primers  and  arithmetics  painting  in  varying 
colors  the  iniquity  of  the  Yankees,  and  the  excellences 
of  the  Southerners. 

But  this  was  simply  the  light  outward  expression 
of  inward  stress  and  strain;  conditions  were  pressing 
hard  upon  the  land ;  periodicals  were  forced  to  reduce 
their  sizes  for  want  of  paper  and  for  lack  of  paid 
subscribers.  The  distribution  of  reading  matter  is 
well  exemplified  in  the  issuance  of  Bibles  and  tracts. 
In  the  North,  all  religious  institutions,  save  the  Ameri 
can  Bible  Society,  withdrew  their  support  and  refused 
to  send  books  to  the  Confederates.  In  1861,  a  Nash 
ville  house  had  issued  a  Confederate  Bible,  the 
first  copy  of  which  was  sent  to  Davis,  who  was  about 
to  take  oath  of  office.  The  Southern  Tract  Society  was 
also  active,  publishing  about  one  hundred  and  seventy 
different  pamphlets  for  the  soldiers,  besides  a  special 
hymn  book. 

Out  of  such  forces  as  have  been  here  outlined, 
there  should  have  emanated  some  distinct  expression 
of  life.  But  in  literary  outlook  the  South  did  not 
advance  one  step,  content  to  follow  old  standards,  and 
giving  way  before  the  newer  treatment.  For,  as 
Cooke  himself  wrote:  "Mr.  Howells  and  the  other 
realists  have  crowded  me  out  of  the  popular  regard  as 
a  novelist,  and  have  brought  the  kind  of  fiction  I  write 
into  general  disfavor.  I  do  not  complain  of  that, 
for  they  are  right.  They  see,  as  I  do,  that  fiction 
should  faithfully  reflect  life,  and  they  obey  the  law, 
while  I  was  born  too  soon  and  am  now  too  old  to 
learn  my  trade  anew/' 

Something  immeasurably  sad  surrounds  the  final 
days  of  John  Esten  Cooke  (1830-1886).  He  was  the 
sentimental  historian  who  did  much  for  Virginia,  but 
who,  with  that  tendency  to  cherish  memory,  allowed 
feeling  to  becloud  the  vividness  of  impression.  The 
manner  in  which  he  dealt  with  record  was  picturesque 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  329 

and  effective;  his  commingling  of  historic  fact  with 
fiction  is  indicative  of  his  familiarity  (with  Cooper, 
though  lacking  in  the  originality  of  the  latter.  We 
turn  to  "The  Virginia  Comedians"  for  as  excellent 
a  picture  of  colonial  atmosphere  as  may  be  had ;  therein 
are  courtesy  and  cultured  feeling  blended  with  a  full 
amount  of  close  study.  It  is  perhaps  replete  with 
descriptions,  in  essay  form,  of  manners  and  customs 
peculiar  to  the  soil,  characteristics  which  made  Ken 
nedy's  "  Barn  Swallow  "  more  description  than  novel. 
But  Cooke  was  very  largely  the  romanticist,  and  the 
tendency  on  his  part  to  treasure  small  detail  swelled 
unduly  the  proportions  of  his  biographies  of  Jackson 
and  Lee. 

Still,  there  is  an  advantage  in  such  treasuring — 
that  it  preserves  impressions  which  are  quickly  evanes 
cent  and  easily  forgotten.  Cooke  and  his  successor, 
Thomas  Nelson  Page,  will  give  plentiful  atmosphere 
to  the  historian  of  the  future.  When  we  read  of 
Jackson  and  of  Stuart,  as  described  by  Cooke,  we  un 
failingly  feel  that  association  alone  could  have  pro 
duced  the  warmth  and  glow  which  illumine  the  por 
trait;  for  that  is  what  it  is — not,  according  to  later 
methods,  an  estimate.  Cooke  fought  in  the  war  and 
came  in  contact  with  the  figures  he  afterwards  used 
in  his  fiction;  it  was  probably  the  fullness  of  his 
remembrance  which  made  him  overcrowd  "  Surrey 
of  Eagle's  Nest,"  a  stirring  account  of  the  Civil  War, 
if  not  a  perfect  one. 

His  novels,  romances,  and  essays  show  him  largely 
as  the  historian  of  Virginia;  the  old-fashioned  training 
which  was  his,  produced  in  him  the  tendency  to  over- 
accentuate  both  motive  and  situation ;  yet  for  all  that, 
he  was  popular  and  deservedly  so.  He  described  the 
life  with  which  he  was  closest  in  touch,  and  showed  no 
desire  to  forsake  his  tradition  or  to  deny  others  the 
future  inevitably  in  store  for  them.  As  a  measure 


330    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

of  his  historical  view,  it  is  of  decided  benefit  to  con 
trast  his  "  Virginia," — a  contribution  to  the  Ameri 
can  Commonwealth  series — with  Professor  Shaler's 
"  Kentucky." 

This  much  has  to  be  borne  in  mind  about  Cooke, 
in  comparison  with  some  of  his  contemporaries, — that 
he  never  forsook  his  environment,  that  the  improba 
bilities  in  his  stories  were  faults  of  plot  rather  than 
falsifications  of  fact  and  motive.  He  was  descended 
from  an  illustrious  family  of  literary  cavaliers,  and 
he  epitomized  their  spirit;  his  stories  could  have  been 
laid  nowhere  but  in  Virginia. 

In  two  essential  respects,  therefore,  does  Cooke  dif 
fer  from  Mrs.  Augusta  Evans  Wilson  (1835-1909). 
First  of  all,  save  for  the  fact  that  in  temperament, 
feeling,  and  moral  bearing,  the  latter  is  product  of 
Southern  training,  her  stories  might  as  well  be  placed 
in  a  foreign  clime  as  in  her  own  country.  This 
may  be  largely  due  to  a  tendency  to  make  use  of  fea 
tures  uncommon  to  the  Southern  landscape.  The 
romanticism  of  the  old-fashioned  school  of  fiction  was 
over-effulgent  and  indefinite.  Then,  it  must  be  noted 
that  Mrs.  Wilson  was  generally  indifferent  to  historical 
growth,  an  indifference  which  soon  found  persistent 
expression  against  the  trend  of  modern  development. 
In  a  word,  she  became  a  champion  of  old  methods. 

Such  a  style  as  Mrs.  Wilson  adopted  was  no  real 
measure  of  her  exceptional  brilliancy  as  a  woman. 
Through  its  very  repleteness,  it  obscured  a  tendency 
to  be  lyrical  in  her  philosophic  thought ;  it  over 
weighted  a  certain  poetic  beauty  of  idea,  a  certain  high 
seriousness  of  spirituality,  a  certain  picturesqueness  of 
abstract  statement.  It  leads  one  falsely  to  believe  that 
her  knowledge  was  esoteric  and  exoteric,  whereas,  we 
know  her  to  have  been  versed,  as  no  other  Southern 
woman  of  her  time  was  versed,  in  unusual  learning. 
Mrs.  Wilson  was  not  superficial,  though  her  display 


AUGUSTA    EVANS    WILSON. 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  331 

of  information  laid  her  open  to  the  charge;  she  did 
not  possess  a  pseudo-culture,  though  her  extravagant 
bestowal  of  reason  upon  inappropriate  characters  sub 
jects  her  to  the  criticism ;  she  was  not  insincere,  though 
an  unnecessary  display  concealed  the  simple  fervor 
of  her  intention.  In  the  final  estimate,  it  will  be 
determined  that  Mrs.  Wilson  was  a  very  noteworthy 
representative  of  a  literary  genre  which,  while  it  lasted, 
brought  with  it  a  healthy,  wide  enjoyment,  and  an 
emotional  appeal  which,  drawing  plentifully  upon 
warm  sentiment,  treasured  a  romantic  spirit  the  world 
would  be  the  poorer  without. 

These  novelists  of  the  old  type  are  handicapped  for 
the  future  by  the  very  excellences  which  made  them 
popular  in  the  past.  Mrs.  Wilson  was  a  most  vital 
expression  of  that  Southern  taste  which,  classical 
rather  than  imitative,  flourished  upon  Meredith's 
"  Lucile  "  and  Bulwer's  "  The  Lady  of  Lyons."  No 
one,  in  the  face  of  literary  fact,  would  deny  the  won 
derful  hold  Mrs.  Wilson  had  upon  her  reading  pub 
lic — all  the  more  remarkable  because,  from  1858,  when 
"  Inez  "  was  first  published,  she  represented  a  feminine 
example  of  the  successful  Southern  literary  worker — 
so  successful,  indeed,  that  publishers  offered  her  large 
sums  in  view  of  the  unprecedented  sales  of  previous 
works.  She  was  a  "  best-seller  "  for  many  years,  and 
her  appeal  spread  beyond  sectional  interest.  There 
is  no  measure  of  the  pure  enjoyment  drawn  by  all 
classes  from  the  novels  of  "  Augusta  Evans." 

Mrs.  Wilson's  variety  consists  in  the  mechanism  of 
plot,  and  in  the  small  details  of  outward  character. 
The  moral  color  of  her  work  is  much  the  same,  and  for 
that  reason,  one  book  is  not  unlike  the  other.  There 
is  melodrama  both  in  "At  the  Mercy  of  Tiberius" 
and  "  Infelice,"  but  the  psychological  matrices  are 
similar,  because  the  author  is  what  she  is.  Mrs.  Wil 
son's  characters  are  all  children  of  her  own  belief, 


332    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

of  her  own  opinion.  Of  their  kind,  they  vary  in  de 
grees  of  excellence,  and  not  in  spiritual  value ;  model 
ing  is  done  over  the  same  fundamental  framework. 
And  because  the  basis  of  Mrs.  Wilson's  faith  was 
essentially  pure,  she  had  a  genuine  power  of  illumining 
the  commonplace  expressions  of  life  with  a  light  com 
ing  from  inherent  qualities,  rather  than  from  any 
superimposed  and  artificial  source. 

To  analyze  her  style  is  unfair,  for  it  was  peculiar 
to  a  fashion  now  extinct — a  fashion  where  sonorous 
ness  was  an  essential  test  of  value,  and  where  one  was 
satisfied  with  the  "tone"  of  the  whole.  The  novels 
of  this  class  must  be  accepted  in  total  effect,  in  whole 
impression.  It  was  the  literary  habit  of  the  day  to 
crowd  the  page  with  Latin,  French,  and  Italian 
phrases,  just  as  no  chapter  might  begin  without  a 
quotation  from  an  unfamiliar  poem  or  play.  But 
while  such  excrescences  overwhelm  any  great  sponta 
neity  in  Mrs.  Wilson's  case,  she  was  only  adhering 
to  an  accepted  formula ;  perhaps  she  overdid  it,  as  any 
devotee  is  likely  to  do;  probably  she  carried  too  far 
her  facile  aptitude  in  the  use  of  simile  and  metaphor. 
Notwithstanding  these  blemishes,  her  books  contain 
purple  patches  of  eloquence  which  constitute  no  ordi 
nary  literature. 

Despite  Mrs.  Wilson's  opposition  to  that  forward 
movement  which  brought  certain  freedom  to  women 
through  serviceable  education,  there  is  small  doubt 
that  her  opposition  only  made  her  realize  the  more 
poignantly  how  futile  her  fight.  Unlike  Cooke,  she 
did  not  succumb,  but  struggled  bravely  to  the  last. 
She  anchored  herself  as  a  fixed  point  in  the  maelstrom 
of  scientific  revelation  which  carried  Tennyson  in  its 
current,  stamping  his  philosophy  as  distinctively  nine 
teenth  century.  There  was  no  blind,  obstinate  oppo 
sition  on  Mrs.  Wilson's  part;  her  intellect  was  forceful 
enough  to  argue,  but  it  was  not  sufficiently  pliable  to 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  333 

be  modified  by  what  passed  through  it.  She  was 
deeply  read  and  she  followed  the  trend  of  research, 
the  rise  of  new  forces  in  her  time.  The  South  was 
not  receptive  to  new  ideas,  and  the  limitations  of  her 
section  were  imposed  upon  Mrs.  Wilson.  It  is  our 
impression  that  had  the  historic  sense  been  what  it 
is  to-day,  that  had  there  been  brought  forcefully  to 
Mrs.  Wilson  the  widening  of  knowledge  which  only 
enriches  certain  aspects  of  faith,  she  would  have  been 
carried  forward.  For  some  of  her  best  powers  were 
exerted  in  an  effort  to  back  water.  Cleverness  will  not 
succeed  in  this;  if  Mrs.  Wilson  remained  firm,  it  was 
through  the  rare  qualities  of  her  feminine  strength. 

Sermons  and  essays  may  be  lifted  bodily  from  the 
pages  of  Mrs.  Wilson's  books;  they  are  her  personal 
impressions,  her  earnest  utterances  concerning  the 
mysteries  of  life.  These  are  shot  through  in  places 
with  very  keen  sentences — the  concentrated  essence  of 
some  big  truths.  Coming,  as  they  did,  at  a  time  when 
Southern  literature  was  dominantly  reminiscent,  these 
expressions  of  transcendental  views,  these  critical  analy 
ses  of  the  ethics  of  action,  of  the  morality  of  relation 
ship,  gave  her  a  unique  place  in  the  South.  She  was 
some  new  force — according  to  that  conservatism  which 
accepted  without  question  or  reason — a  daring  force, 
since  Mrs.  Wilson  not  only  questioned  and  reasoned, 
but  opposed.  In  her,  we  may  measure  the  current 
opinion  regarding  education  for  women,  regarding  the 
eventual  reconciliation  of  science  with  religion,  and 
regarding  eternal  truths  which  none  the  less  are  true, 
whatever  the  manner  of  expression. 

Essentially,  Mrs.  Wilson  was  of  a  religious  cast 
of  mind ;  this  is  one  reason  why  her  work  is  so  per 
sonal.  Yet  in  her  opposition  to  scientific  ^challenge, 
she  was  not  peculiar;  she  was  part  of  an  era  in  which 
biological  revelation  was  not  generally  accepted,*  and 
was  only  sparingly  acknowledged.  It  is  therefore  not 


334    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

only  fair,  but  necessary,  that  she  be  valued  in  terms 
of  1860.  This  is  the  critical  way  of  placing  Mrs. 
Wilson,  but  she  rises  beyond  the  comparative  stand 
ard  by  a  human  test  which  transcends  all  others. 
Where  Simms,  and  Kennedy,  and  Tucker,  and  a  host 
of  associates  are  buried  beneath  newer  fashions,  Mrs. 
Wilson  persists.  This  is  not  because  of  any  modern 
spirit.  An  interesting  attempt  was  made  by  her, 
when  in  "  A  Speckled  Bird  "  she  tried  to  keep  abreast 
of  present  sympathy;  but  she  was  forced  to  return 
to  her  well-tried  methods,  and  so  "  Devota "  is  her 
final  word,  as  it  was  her  first  word  in  earlier  novels, 
upon  social  change. 

We  may  well  wonder,  nevertheless,  whether  Mrs. 
Wilson  is  to  be  any  the  more  held  accountable  for  al 
lowing  whole  essays  to  pass  through  the  minds  of  her 
characters  under  emotion,  than  Mrs.  Edith  Wharton, 
whose  stories  are  so  largely  consumed  in  psychological 
examination.  The  difference  is  purely  one  of  literary 
fashions,  and  Mrs.  Wilson's  peculiarities  of  style  were 
in  vogue  until  Mr.  Howells  turned  the  tide.  And 
now  we  wait  another  pioneer  to  free  fiction  from  cer 
tain  earmarks  bequeathed  it  by  the  school  of  natural 
ism. 

Open  "  Infelice,"  and  the  eye  grasps  sentences  of 
overwhelming  length  and  obscurity;  the  reader  does 
not  need  to  understand  the  meaning  disguised  by  an 
unfamiliar  language;  the  blur  of  exceptional  phrases 
was  a  requisite  factor  in  such  style.  The  old-fash 
ioned  novelist  was  led  to  touch  the  emotions  at  vital 
moments,  marked  by  outward  situation.  This  is  the 
essential  demand  of  melodrama — emotionalism,  cou 
pled  with  excessive  movement  as  indicative  of  inward 
struggle ;  it  was,  as  we  have  said,  the  literary  fashion 
of  the  day,  and  Mrs.  Wilson  was  in  the  literary 
stream  of  which  "Camille"  was  the  starting  point. 
Augustin  Daly  was  reaping  a  fortune  in  such  matter ; 


CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD  335 

Dion  Boucicault  was  past-master  in  the  art ;  "  The 
Two  Orphans  "  thrilled  the  theater. 

In  the  very  face  of  the  fact  that  "  Inez  "  dealt  with 
the  Mexican  War,  that  "Macaria"  (issued  under  the 
Confederate  copyright)  was  evolved  from  the  travail 
of  a  Civil  War  experience,  and  that  "  A  Speckled 
Bird"  represents  the  precarious  conditions  of  Recon 
struction,  Mrs.  Wilson  only  dimly  realized  the  historic 
sense.  Political  opinion  creates  general  feeling,  and 
throughout  the  pages  of  "  Macaria  "  the  impression  of 
that  feeling  is  indicated.  Mrs.  Wilson's  examination 
of  conditions  was  cursory,  her  interest  in  social  forces 
threatening  the  status  of  Southern  life  was  instructive. 
It  was  as  much  a  part  of  Southern  culture  to  assume 
this  individual  personal  view,  as  it  was  the  South's 
one  weapon  of  self-defense  to  ignore  the  far-reaching 
vision.  That  is  why  in  writing  "  Macaria/'  Mrs.  Wil 
son  subjected  herself  to  criticism  from  the  North, 
among  readers  who  would  accept  her  emotionalism 
but  not  her  sectionalism. 

In  point  of  execution,  "  At  the  Mercy  of  Tiberius  " 
is  Mrs.  Wilson's  most  consistent  novel,  excellent  in 
characterization,  human  in  motive  and  logical  in  se 
quence  ;  "  St.  Elmo,"  quite  in  accord  with  "  Jane 
Eyre,"  illustrates  her  spiritual  attitude  toward  skep 
ticism,  and  as  well,  in  the  portraiture  of  Edna  Earl, 
demonstrates  the  old-fashioned  novelist's  lack  of  ap 
propriateness  in  attributing  thoughts  of  a  philosophic 
tendency  to  untutored  minds. 

Autobiographically,  "  Beulah  "  is  an  expression  of 
Mrs.  Wilson's  intense  faith ;  however,  it  is  hardly 
possible  to  confine  this  personal  tone  and  inclination 
to  a  single  volume.  In  her  books,  it  is  Mrs.  Wilson 
who  is  always  thinking;  here  again  she  exhibits  a  fail 
ing  of  her  "  school  " — the  inability  to  detach  her  char 
acters  and  paint  them  in  consonance  with  their  charac 
teristics.  But  an  exceptional  quality  of  her  talent 


336    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

rested  in  her  power  of  absorption — not  only  of  varied 
philosophical  systems,  but  of  special  details.  She 
imbibed  Eastern  mysticism,  and  gave  it  the  color  of 
her  personal  equation  in  "  Vashti " ;  she  was  endowed 
with  an  exceptional  gift  of  visual  imagination,  which 
made  an  actual  visit  to  India  unnecessary  in  describing 
the  brilliancy  of  a  fictitious  scene. 

To  do  an  author  of  this  type  full  justice,  her  general 
acceptance  must  guarantee  her  social  worth,  if  not  her 
art  excellence.  During  Mrs.  Wilson's  supremacy,  she 
was  a  species  of  pioneer;  she  differed  from  the  school 
of  novelists  she  knew — Disraeli,  Miss  Taylor,  the 
author  of  "  Frankenstein,"  and  others — in  that  deadly 
romanticism  was  relieved  by  mental  activity.  The 
women  of  her  stories  were  not  passive ;  if,  in  the  cata 
loguing  of  their  physical  endowments,  she  followed  the 
usual  conceptions,  she  thought  for  them.  The  positive 
merit  of  such  work  lies  in  the  high  seriousness  of  its 
intent — a  seriousness  which  quite  often  is  imtinctured 
by  the  existence  of  any  beneficent  humor.  In  its 
broader  analysis,  it  possesses  a  sound  belief,  and  rec 
ognizes  the  presence  of  the  essentials  of  progress  with 
out  accepting  them.  Mrs.  Wilson  was  ever  true  to 
that  one  stand,  and  her  utterance  to  the  women  of  the 
present  sounded  the  note  of  her  social  attitude.  "  I 
believe,"  so  she  wrote,  "  that  the  day  which  endows 
women  with  the  elective  franchise  will  be  one  of  the 
blackest  in  the  annals  of  this  country,  and  will  ring 
the  death-knell  of  modern  civilization,  national  pros 
perity,  social  morality,  and  domestic  happiness.  Every 
exciting  political  election  will  then  witness  the  revolt 
ing  deeds  perpetrated  by  the  furies  who  assisted  in 
the  storming  of  the  Tuileries,  and  a  repetition  of  the 
scenes  enacted  during  the  reign  of  the  Paris  Commune 
will  mournfully  attest  how  terrible  is  the  female  nature 
when  perverted." 

Mrs.  Wilson  has  a  right  to  be  emphasized  above 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD  337 

all  others  of  her  period,  because,  while  not  affecting 
taste  profoundly,  she  most  emphatically  satisfied  taste 
and  met  a  popular  widespread  demand.  There  is  per 
haps  more  Southern  flavor  of  the  cavalier  kind  in 
Sarah  Anne  Dorsey  (1829-1879)  and  in  Mrs.  Ter- 
hune  ("Marion  Harland,"  1830-),  but  in  her  per 
son,  as  well  as  in  her  work,  Mrs.  Wilson  represents 
a  significant,  no  less  than  a  beneficent,  stage  in  the 
evolution  of  Southern  thought 

James  Gibson  Johnson  has  recently  compiled  a 
"Bibliography  of  Southern  Fiction  Prior  to  1860"; 
the  very  titles  are  sufficient  commentary  on  the  charac 
ter  of  the  majority  of  stones.  Writers  like  Mrs.  E. 
D.  E.  N.  Southworth,  whose  appeal  did  not  rise  above 
the  level  of  the  New  York  Ledger,  exhibited  no  spe 
cial  trait;  they  were  marked  by  inane  purpose  and 
misdirected  sensation.  They  knew  only  that  species 
of  emotionalism  and  of  sentimentalism  which  per 
meates  the  pages  of  "Retribution"  (1849)  and 
"  Changed  Brides/*  or  Mrs.  Caroline  Lee  Hentz's 
(1800-1856)  "A  Planter's  Northern  Bride."  It  was 
expected  that  novels  would  contain  impressions  of  a 
land  fostering  a  peculiar  civilization ;  everyone  pos 
sessed  "views,"  from  the  Old  Gentleman  of  the  Black 
Stock  to  the  Northern  Governor  in  a  strange  regime. 
Occasionally,  adventure  broke  from  locality,  and  we 
find  the  Rev.  Francis  R.  Goulding  (1810-1881)  writ 
ing  "  The  Young  Marooners  "  and  "  Maropners'  Is 
land"  in  a  general  spirit  of  novelty. 

But,  remembering  the  prose  work  accomplished  be 
fore  the  beginning  of  the  new  order,  we  may  well 
note  that  the  break  from  one  generation  to  another  was 
not  so  violent  as  Cooke's  pessimistic  acquiescence 
would  indicate.  That  is  the  usual  way  with  the  evo 
lution  of  method;  there  are  always  bridges  across 
chasms:  Lanier  showing  the  possibility  of  broader 
thinking  in  the  South;  Grady  and  Watterson  linking 


338     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

the  traditions  of  personal  journalism  with  impersonal 
news-gathering;  Curry  connecting  the  old  school  con 
ditions  with  the  new;  Richard  Malcolm  Johnston  up 
holding  the  sense  of  locality  so  well  begun  by  Baldwin 
and  Longstreet,  and  thereby  representing  a  mean  be 
tween  them  and  Joel  Chandler  Harris.  That  we  are 
unable  to  link  Mrs.  Wilson  with  the  present  is  due  to 
her  aloofness  from  the  condition  of  her  time,  and  her 
complete  identification  with  the  spiritual  tenor  of  her 
time.  But  that  in  no  way  detracts  from  her  distinc 
tive  and  honored  place  in  Southern  letters. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

SOUTHERN   POETRY  OF  THE  CIVIL  WAR 
BEING  A  CONSIDERATION  OF  CONFEDERATE  LYRICS 


OUT  of  the  Civil  War  period  has  come  some  of  the 
best  poetry  the  South  has  created  thus  far,  represent 
ing  simultaneously  its  distinction  of  character  and  its 
tragedy.  We  reach  an  intermediate  stage  where, 
though  conditions  were  paralyzed  by  brand  and  sword 
and  death,  the  old  civilization  was  giving  way  before 
the  new.  The  war  itself  was  not  the  immediate  cause 
of  this  shifting,  though  its  results  hastened  adjust 
ment  under  circumstances  which  revealed  the  noblest 
qualities  of  Southern  manhood.  But  unless  the  evolu 
tionary  process  had  already  taken  hold  of  the  economic 
and  social  life,  revolution  would  have  left  the  South 
wholly  destitute  of  a  starting  point.  The  cessation  of 
hostilities  meant  that  the  Southern  people  took  up  the 
burden  where  they  had  left  it  to  go  on  the  battle-field 
— resumed  their  existence  where  they  began  to  modify 
it  in  the  light  of  responsibilities  which  slavery  had  not 
imposed  upon  them,  but  which  emancipation  exacted. 
The  war  left  for  the  South  the  legacy  of  defeat,  and 
also  the  negro,  loosed  from  his  moorings  and  given  a 
political  status. 

The  war  poet  of  the  South  was  born  in  ante-bellum 
days;  representative  of  the  Old  South,  yet  he  was 
given  to  realize  the  nearness  of  the  New.  Even  in  his 
own  song  there  rise  faint  murmurs  of  dissatisfaction 
with  the  limitations  of  his  environment — the  same  dis- 

339 


340    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

satisfaction  which  prompted  the  commercial  conven 
tions  for  the  purpose  of  stimulating  sectional  manufac 
tures  (a  confession  that  King  Cotton  was  too  despotic), 
and  which  developed  throughout  the  South  a  strong 
feeling  against  secession  and  against  war. 

When  the  time  came  for  the  Southern  poet  to  be 
martial,  he  composed  lyrics  of  exceptional  strain;  he 
sent  forth  song  marked  by  purity  and  intensity,  which 
gave  no  thought  to  form,  yet  which,  by  the  complete 
ness  of  its  impulse,  took  form  with  no  seeming  effort. 
He  did  not  aim  for  artifice,  and  so,  we  find,  as  in  all 
war  poetry,  that  his  expression  was  part  of  that  over 
whelming  response  he  gave  to  the  current  event  and 
to  the  man  of  the  hour. 

It  were  hardjy  possible  for  us  to  claim  that  South 
ern  poetry  could  boast  of  a  tradition  at  this  time;  its 
inheritance  of  sentiment  had  now  grown  to  be  some 
thing  distinctly  local,  but  its  bulk  of  verse  was  imita 
tive  in  technique  and  not  progressive  in  thought.  Yet 
what  one  might  designate  as  the  only  "  school  of 
poetry"  in  the  South  was  formed  about  this  time;  it 
grew  out  of  no  reaction  against  poetic  form  or  poetic 
thought,  but  constituted  a  determined  stand  against 
isolation — a  stand  which,  though  it  did  not  often  take 
Hayne  away  from  the  barren  vicinity  of  "  Copse 
Hill,"  or  make  Ticknor  anything  more  than  an  am 
bulatory  country  physician  with  a  rare  lyric  gift,  never 
theless  resulted  in  a  literary  sympathy  which  brought 
them  closer  together.  We  find  Hayne  in  lengthy  cor 
respondence  with  Mrs.  Preston,  and  the  letters  between 
these  two  indicate  that  they  have  put  aside  for  a  time 
the  reading  of  the  Gentleman  of  the  Black  Stock,  and 
are  following  the  current  of  the  day  in  England,  mar 
veling  at  the  infusion  of  science  into  the  realm  of 
religion,  so  clearly  evident  in  Tennyson.  In  this 
"school"  we  note  the  expression  of  frank  criticism 
and  the  desire  to  analyze  the  structure  of  verse. 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  341 

Lanier  writes  of  Hayne,  and  the  latter  nurtures  the 
genius  of  Timrod.  They  all  possessed  faith  in  their 
art,  and  this  faith  brought  them  together  in  common 
spirit.  Hayne  and  Mrs.  Preston  never  met,  yet  it  was 
the  latter  who  wrote  the  introduction  to  the  memorial 
edition  of  the  former's  work.  It  was  not  a  blind  en 
thusiasm,  it  was  no  untutored  love  for  poetry,  that 
marked  the  constant  interchange  of  opinion. 

The  poet  of  the  South  reflected  the  whole  response 
of  the  South  during  the  war;  every  change  of  feeling 
was  caught  and  was  perpetuated  in  song.  The  sol 
diers  were  not  professionals,  though  Southern  leader 
ship  owed  much  to  professional  training;  each  man 
had  something  to  defend,  someone  to  protect ;  the  slave 
perhaps  had  hastened  the  conflict,  but  it  was  the  home 
that  rilled  the  Confederate  with  the  genius  of  the 
warrior.  The  lyric  call  across  the  field  gave  him  a 
firmer  grasp  of  his  sword. 

But  afterwards,  when  the  plow  turned  up  shot  and 
shell,  when  he  tried  to  repair  the  ravages  of  the  in 
vader,  when  he  took  account  of  the  alien  black,  the 
Southerner  had  little  time  for  song ;  he  fell  back  upon 
his  past  as  the  foundation  upon  which  to  take  note  of 
the  future.  The  atmosphere  was  not  one  in  which  to 
encourage  the  poet ;  Hayne  and  Timrod  and  Ticknor 
were  cursed  with  the  poverty  of  their  lives,  and  of 
them  all  only  Lanier  succeeded,  after  heroic  struggle, 
in  throwing  the  obstacles  aside.  Hayne,  stung  by  the 
lack  of  support  given  to  the  literary  worker  after  the 
war,  so  far  lost  self-control  as  to  cry  out  against 
the  lack  of  any  feeling  for  culture  in  the  South.  But 
the  critic  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  though 
the  North  made  political  adjustment  in  the  South  very 
difficult,  it  was  in  the  North  that  the  literary  voice 
of  the  South  was  again  encouraged.  The  reminiscent 
note  in  that  voice  did  not  succeed  in  immediately  alter 
ing  the  false  outside  impressions  held  of  the  South; 


342    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

the  spirit  of  criticism  could  not  come  until  the  scars 
of  war  had  grown  callous  to  challenge. 

The  school  of  poetry  nevertheless  persisted,  main 
tained  largely  in  its  faith  by  the  richness  of  its  inherit 
ance  ;  its  one  large  figure  was  Lanier,  and,  apart  from 
artistry  of  his  work,  there  is  a  reason  for  his  position. 
Hayne  and  Timrod,  in  the  vigor  of  battle  and  in  the 
tragedy  of  defeat,  were  men  of  the  Old  Regime.  The 
mental  virility  of  Lanier  responded  to  the  trend  of 
conditions;  in  him  we  find  typified  a  pioneer  of  the 
New  South — the  poet  of  adjustment. 


il 

War  poetry  is  the  outburst  of  inward  fervor;  it 
represents  the  immediate  outlet  of  intense  feeling,  and 
is  prompted  wholly  by  that  feeling,  with  no  thought 
beyond  its  immediate  value.  It  represents  response 
to  incident,  it  centers  upon  heroic  occurrence  and  lead 
ership,  it  measures  emotion  under  pressure.  As  far 
as  temper  is  concerned,  it  stretches  from  the  martial 
note  to  the  sentimental  strain,  from  "  Maryland  "  to 
"  Lorena " ;  in  it  are  to  be  found  the  extremes  of 
bearing,  from  "The  Bonnie  Blue  Flag"  to  "The 
Conquered  Banner."  Even  in  the  individual  this 
change  was  forced,  as  in  Judge  Requier's  "  Our  Faith 
in  '6i"and  "  Ashes  of  Glory." 

The  fate  of  a  war  song  is  always  uncertain.  Like 
"  My  Maryland,"  it  is  usually  tucked  away  in  some 
obscure  corner  of  a  local  paper  (in  this  instance  the 
New  Orleans  Delta),  and  spreads,  unknown  to  the 
author,  until  it  bursts  forth  as  possession  of  a  whole 
people.  Its  music  is  rarely  original,  but  identification 
usually  lends  it  a  distinct  originality.  The  all-essen 
tial  factor  is  to  effect  a  union  between  words  and 
music  that  will  embody  the  inward  aspirations  of  the 
greatest  numbers,  and  express  an  iihi/.'^iiate  sentiment. 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  343 

It  is  written  in  the  heat  of  the  hour,  either  during 
suspense  or  within  actual  range  of  conflict;  authorship 
becomes  the  least  claim  war  poetry  has  on  the  future. 

The  birth  of  war  song  is  oftenest  the  resurrection 
of  an  older  strain,  and  under  different  conditions.  It 
was  a  girl,  Miss  Jenny  Gary,  who  fitted  "  My  Mary 
land  "  to  "  Lauriger  Horatius,"  which  the  Germans  per 
petuate  in  "  Tannenbaum,  O  Tannenbaum,"  and  sang 
the  same  to  Beauregard's  soldiers  in  camp.  "  Dixie," 
hallowed  and,  by  now,  well-nigh  national,  was  first 
heard,  as  a  song,  on  the  minstrel  platform,  where  its 
author,  Daniel  Decatur  Emmett,  appeared ;  but  though 
the  first  mention  of  it  is  found  in  January,  1859,  when 
Bryant's  troupe  was  in  New  York,  the  Montgomery 
Advertiser  claims  that  even  before  this,  the  air  was 
made  familiar  in  Alabama.  Professor  Matthews  has 
unearthed  "  The  Irish  Jaunting  Car," — a  song  which 
used  to  amuse  theater  audiences,  and  which  after 
wards  became  the  air  for  "  The  Bonnie  Blue  Flag." 

The  armies,  North  and  South,  each  called  forth, 
after  the  manner  of  their  environment,  a  body  of  song 
which  in  its  formal  expression  was  not  dissimilar, 
but  Which  in  its  topic  and  in  its  special  sentiment,  re 
flected  the  separateness  of  political  aim  and  of  per 
sonal  view.  Here  it  is  not  our  object  to  show  wherein 
this  difference  lay.  On  both  sides  of  the  Mason  and 
Dixon  line  picturesque  incident  of  like  humanity  was 
not  wanting;  the  only  distinguishing  mark  was  the 
gray  coat  of  "Lorena"  and  the  blue  coat  of  "The 
Girl  I  Left  Behind  Me."  But  our  attention  must  be 
centered  on  the  South,  where  we  shall  find  the  song 
differing  from  that  of  the  North  in  the  difference  of 
strategic  viewpoint,  and  in  the  final  destiny  of  war. 
The  land  was  wakened  by  the  tread  of  brothers  at 
strife;  on  one  side  "John  Brown's  Body,"  "Marching 
Through  Georgia,"  "The  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Repub 
lic,"  and  "Tramp,  Tramp,  Tramp,  the  Boys  Are 


344    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

Marching,"  brought  strength  to  the  ranks;  on  the 
other  there  were  only  needed  the  strains  of  "  Dixie  " 
to  tighten  lagging  hearts  to  renewed  purpose. 

There  are  varied  ways  of  systematizing  the  type  of 
war  poetry  in  the  South.  In  his  compendious  volume 
of  "  Poems  of  American  History,"  Mr.  Stevenson  sug 
gests  the  historical  treatment,  and  a  glance  through 
the  many  compilations  justifies  one  in  such  a  consider 
ation.  War  poetry  is  the  fever  chart  of  conflict.  The 
Northern  poets  sang  a  different  song  about  the  slave 
than  the  Southern  poets;  Lowell  and  Whittier,  before 
the  outbreak,  were  inspired  by  the  intense  fanaticism 
of  the  abolition  movement,  far  different  from  the  spirit 
prompting  Grayson's  "  The  Hireling  and  the  Slave," 
in  defense  of  the  institution.  Then  came  actual  con 
flict,  and  while  Bryant  penned  "  Our  Country's  Call," 
Pike  wrote  "  Dixie,"  Timrod  conceived  "  A  Cry  to 
Arms,"  and  Ketchum  sent  forth  "  The  Bonnie  Blue 
Flag."  The  general  sentiment  rang  in  the  appeals 
that  came  as  inspiration,  and  served  as  inspiration — 
that  called  upon  all  tradition,  and  fired  within  one  the 
most  intimate  and  personal  responsibility.  Ran 
dall's  "  Maryland  "  and  Timrod's  "  Carolina  "  show  a 
similar  attitude  toward  separate  States.  Critically,  one 
might  say,  as  one  will  undoubtedly  conclude  after  ex 
amining  the  facts,  that  one  of  the  weaknesses  of  the 
Confederacy  was  the  lack  of  union  sentiment  in  the 
face  of  sovereign  claims;  each  State  had  its  history, 
its  sons,  its  problems ;  each  State  felt  itself  endan 
gered  by  the  tread  of  the  despot.  But  as  the  war 
advanced,  the  sacred  bond  of  blood  drew  the  sentiment 
closer  and  made  the  artistic  expression  similar. 

The  tragedy  of  the  war  is  writ  in  verse ;  its  progress 
finds  record  in  the  changing  tone  of  song.  Note  the 
prismatic  variation  of  Miss  Mason's  "The  Southern 
Poems  of  the  War  " ;  match  these  expressions  with  the 
actual  events  in  history;  little  did  St.  George  Tucker 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  345 

think  that  his  first  poem  of  the  war,  "The  Southern 
Cross,"  imitating  "  The  Star-spangled  Banner,"  would 
be  followed  by  such  scenes  as  marked  the  conflict. 
We  have  battle  hymns  and  songs,  prayers  of  suspense 
from  mother  and  soldier  alike,  ballads  of  charges  and 
individual  bravery.  Then  the  poems  to  the  dead — 
such  poems  written  by  Flash,  Dr.  Palmer,  and  Mrs. 
Preston  when  "  Stonewall "  Jackson  fell ;  such  excel 
lent  examples  of  the  ballad  spirit  as  Randall's  "  Pel- 
ham  "  and  J.  E.  Cooke's  "  Band  of  Pines  " ;  as  Mrs. 
Preston's  "  Ashby "  and  Thompson's  verses  on  the 
same ;  as  Flash's  "  Zollicoffer  "  and  Thompson's  "  Bur 
ial  of  Latane"  and  "  Stuart's  Obsequies."  The  spirit 
of  faith  and  the  fire  of  warriors  pulsed  through  these 
lines;  facing  death,  Southerners  yet  bethought  them  of 
glory  which  is  honor  and  sacrifice.  They  were  not 
alone  in  this;  in  the  North  there  was  much  the  same 
bravery,  but  it  is  one  thing  to  dedicate  one's  life  to  a 
cause,  and  another  thing  to  find  one's  tradition  threat 
ened.  And  the  tradition  of  birth  and  accomplishment 
is  part  of  the  brain  and  sinew  of  life,  and  must  be  ap 
pealed  to  in  a  personal  way.  Death  indeed  through 
out  the  South  did  not  stand  for  decoration,  but  for 
consecration. 

War  poetry  is  the  quick  record  of  passing  incident; 
its  story,  if  it  has  one  to  tell,  epitomizes  the  simple 
appeal  to  a  broad  and  sweeping  emotion.  With  the 
fervor  of  Tom  Moore's  "  Minstrel  Boy,"  were  written 
Ticknor's  "  Little  Giffin  of  Tennessee  "  and  Dr.  Moses' 
"Little  Sergeant  Banks."  The  word  "rebel"  rings 
throughout  the  verse,  for  the  South  knew  that  action 
lifted  the  word  into  fame,  not  as  a  badge  of  ignominy, 
however  much  it  represents  mistaken  policy,  but  as  a 
special  privilege.  You  detect  in  these  poems  the  con 
stant  note  of  pathos,  but  oftenest  the  stirring  appeal, 
akin  to  what  O'Hara  in  "  The  Bivouac  of  the  Dead  " 
so  fittingly  described  as  "the  rapture  of  the  fight," 


346    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

and  which  Pike  sounded  in  "  Southrons,  hear  your 
country  call  you." 

As  the  battles  came  and  went,  they  left  in  their 
wake  descriptive  verses  such  as  followed  Manassas, 
when  Beauregard  wras  perpetuated  by  every  lyric  voice 
in  song.  Leadership  was  exalted  beyond  the  mere 
plane  of  hero-worship — won  by  something  subtler 
than  control,  and  more  holding  than  brilliancy  of  en 
deavor — a  spiritual  force  such  as  Lee  excited,  when  an 
army  of  fifteen  thousand  passed  by  the  sleeping  chief 
in  silence  lest  he  wake.  Those  were  the  hours  of  con 
trasts,  when  danger  lurked  in  the  night-time  for  the 
sentry  in  the  ballad,  "  All  Quiet  Along  the  Potomac 
To-night,"  when  death  did  not  bring  even  the  solace 
of  finding  the  dead,  but  added  the  sting  of  counting 
the  missing.  As  the  lost  cause  became  weaker,  it 
grew  more  holy.  One  might  venture  to  call  the  Con 
federate  soldier  inspired  with  something  of  the  Cru 
sader's  zealous  fervor,  for  the  land  was  drained  in 
order  to  fill  the  ranks.  No  wonder  the  verse  writers 
conceived  such  sentiments  as  "  Too  Young  to  Die." 

Then  came  the  surrender,  and  the  realization  that 
the  four  years'  sacrifice  meant  defeat.  "  Moina's " 
(Father  Ryan's)  "The  Sword  of  Robert  Lee" 
throbs  with  the  cumulative  agony  and  pride  and  love 
of  a  weary  land;  it  was  not  alone  "  The  Conquered 
Banner "  that  drooped.  But  only  for  a  while  were 
the  hopes  of  the  South  paralyzed — during  the  period 
of  slow  realization  and  the  gradual  resumption 
of  daily  pursuits.  The  lyric  strain  of  hope  shot 
through  the  almost  overwhelming  reaction  of  despair 
after  a  brilliant,  but  in  a  sense  useless,  battle.  Tim- 
rod,  among  his  matchless  lines,  wrote  on  "  Spring," 
where  the  pain  and  beauty  of  the  South  were  mingled 
in  almost  perfect  song.  In  the  midst  of  war,  the  soldier 
fought  to  keep  the  invader  from  the  land  which  was 
his  birthright  in  a  deeper  sense  than  citizenship;  the 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  347 

Southerner  was  attached  to  his  soil ;  generations  never 
moved;  generally  speaking,  they  were  not  migratory. 
So  that,  if  the  seasons  found  the  land  resounding 
with  the  tread  of  marching  armies,  the  idleness  of 
peace  found  the  fields  and  highroads  marked  every 
where  with  ravages  of  war.  When  Major  S.  A.  Jonas 
took  the  worthless  "  Confederate  Note  "  and  penned 
upon  its  back  the  celebrated  lines  beginning,  "  Repre 
senting  nothing  on  God's  earth  now,"  he  expressed 
the  tone  of  the  South,  not  yet  determined  to  work  its 
way  out  of  the  cruel  evidences  of  war  everywhere; 
there  was  a  trail  to  the  sea  that  had  to  be  covered  by 
the  plow;  pride  had  to  make  use  of  the  test  of  self- 
control.  It  was  not  easy,  yet  it  was  eventually  done. 
The  very  sentiment  of  the  South  after  the  war  became 
epic  in  its  grandeur,  yet  the  poets  were  not  technically 
equal  to  the  task;  perhaps  it  were  fairer  to  claim 
that  the  immediate  practical  need  gave  them  no  time. 
Tennyson  furnished  them  with  form  when  they  wished 
it;  Southern  war  poetry  lilts  the  same  meter  as 
"  Locksley  Hall,"  and  echoes  the  spirit  of  "  The  Charge 
of  the  Light  Brigade."  The  newspapers  printed  imita 
tions  of  "  The  Star-spangled  Banner,"  and  beginning 
in  New  Orleans,  "  The  Marseillaise  "  was  setting  for 
innumerable  songs.  Such  lines  as  "  A  soldier  boy 
from  Bourbon  lay  gasping  on  the  field,"  strike  famil 
iarly  upon  the  ear,  and  Tom  Hood's  "  The  Bridge 
of  Sighs  "  was  used  in  variation ;  while  it  seemed  al 
most  inevitable,  when  Beauregard  appealed  to  the 
Southern  people  to  melt  their  bells  for  cannon,  that 
Poe  should  be  imitated.  But  what,  after  all,  is  the 
technique  in  a  time  such  as  war?  The  minstrel's  power 
is  to  instill  resolution  and  strength,  and  to  stir  by 
clarion  note  and  dirge.  This  Southern  war  poetry 
did,  and  excellently  well;  it  came  almost  coincident 
with  action,  and  was  pure  in  its  simple  sincerity.  It  is 
the  essence  of  a  lost  cause,  the  heart  expression  of 


348    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

the  Confederacy;  but  more  than  that,  it  represents  a 
thoroughly  human  strain  under  vital  condition.  If 
you  test  it  from  the  outside,  its  martial  character,  its 
description,  its  feelings,  are  not  bombastic,  not  forced, 
not  monotonous.  But  being  occasional  poetry,  one 
must  judge  it  by  the  occasion. 


in 

It  seems  to  be  the  set  purpose  of  some  critics  to 
deny  excellence  to  the  Southern  war  lyric,  but  rash 
statement  cannot  refute  evidence.  We  know  not 
which  is  more  harmful,  however,  ignorance  or  over 
valuation,  and  the  publication  of  "  complete  works  " 
has  obscured  the  separate  existence  of  true  song. 
Henry  Rootes  Jackson's  (1820-1898)  "The  Red  Old 
Hills  of  Georgia/'  in  his  volume  "  Tallulah,  and  Other 
Poems,"  reflects  the  local  feeling  which  prompted  regi 
ments  on  the  march;  Henry  Lynden  Flash  (1835-) 
would  have  much  more  claim  to  attention  in  isolated 
examples  than  in  the  volume  with  its  introductory  let 
ter — a  collection  which  is  over-burdened  with  com 
monplace  expression  and  uneven  verse.  But  Flash  was 
the  typical  dabbler  in  rhyme,  a  business  man,  journal 
ist,  and  soldier,  and  the  casual  craftsman  writing- 
rapidly  and  taking  scant  time  to  refine  what  was 
framed  in  the  heat  of  the  moment.  In  their  day, 
poems  have  been  praised,  but  the  distilling  process  of 
time  does  not  consider  as  all-essential  the  impulse  of 
creation ;  the  living  literature  holds  to  the  eternal  veri 
ties  of  art,  of  which  feeling  is  only  one  element.  These 
men,  strange  to  say,  were  restive,  democratic  in  their 
civic  relations,  yet  carrying  with  them  their  Southern 
trust  in  the  heart.  Flash  wandered  from  Ohio, 
through  Alabama  to  Texas,  thence  to  California;  Pike 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  349 

went  from  Massachusetts  to  Arkansas.  There  was  no 
settled  point  of  contact,  no  determined  point  of  view ; 
in  fact,  there  was  no  spiritual  unity,  and  no  all-absorb 
ing1  belief  in  the  poet's  mission ;  it  was  enough  that  one 
felt  the  call  without  troubling  about  the  technique. 

When  we  consider  Hayne,  we  shall  refer  to  the 
excellence  of  his  son,  William  Hamilton,  in  the  lighter, 
miniature  verse.  Inevitably  the  same  comparison  sug 
gests  itself  in  the  case  of  the  Rev.  Abram  Joseph 
Ryan  (1839-1886),  and  the  priest-poet,  John  Banister 
Tabb,  whose  lyric  gift  in  quatrain  form  is  distinctive. 
"Father"  Ryan  is  a  household  name  in  the  South, 
famed,  not  so  largely  for  the  influences  of  his  eccle 
siastical  duties  within  the  Catholic  Church,  as  for  his 
services  in  the  Confederate  Army  as  chaplain  and  for 
those  songs  of  the  South  which  identify  his  position 
so  largely  with  the  fate  of  the  lost  cause.  His  life 
may  be  compressed  into  a  few  words.  Born  in  Vir 
ginia,  with  Irish  forebears,  he  entered  the  priesthood 
at  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  and  when  he  returned 
home  after  the  conflict,  he  filled  several  pulpits,  chiefly 
identifying  himself  with  St.  Mary's  Church  in  Mobile, 
Ala.,  where  his  ungainly  presence  became  familiar  on 
the  street.  Of  a  modest  nature,  he  was  not  a  seeker 
after  renown,  but  was  prompted  wholly  by  a  mission 
ary  spirit;  he  possessed  a  simple  faith  and  a  simple 
love  for  nature,  and  his  gift  of  verse  was  the  spon 
taneous  expression  of  deep  fervor.  Popular  appreci 
ation  saved  Father  Ryan  from  himself;  were  he  con 
fined  in  estimation  to  religious  poetry  alone,  some  of  it 
interminably  long  and  saturated  with  the  spirit  of  the 
Catholic  service  to  such  an  extent  as  to  fall  from  the 
sphere  of  originality  to  that  of  paraphrasing,  there 
would  be  little  to  say  of  his  claim  to  the  title  of 
"  Laureate  of  the  Lost  Cause."  In  one  of  his  pieces, 
he  wrote  of  poets  in  this  wise : 


350    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

They  move  along  life's  uttermost  extremes, 

Unlike  all  other  men ; 
And  in  their  spirits'  depths  sleep  strangest  dreams 

Like  shadows  in  a  glen. 


This  is  only  half  true,  and,  peculiarly,  Ryan's  quiescent 
state,  where  his  philosophy  of  life  flows  into  eccle- 
siasticism,  is  not  his  happiest;  we  much  prefer  in  him 
the  spirit  of  the  inspired  warrior  to  that  of  the  sancti 
fied  priest ;  he  is  more  alive  and  his  technique  is 
surer  when  he  is  moved  by  the  event  rather  than  by 
the  contemplation ;  for  the  poet  of  quiet  becomes 
bound  up  in  verbiage  unless  he  has  his  art  thoroughly 
in  control,  and  this  Father  Ryan  did  not  have.  "  Bet 
ter  a  day  of  strife  than  a  century  of  sleep,"  he  wrote, 
and  such  a  vein  constitutes  the  chief  fame  of  this 
poet.  We  cannot  deny  him  the  devotion  of  his  calling, 
the  rare  sentiment  of  a  kindly  disposition,  and  his 
filial  affection;  but  the  impulse  of  the  thinker  was 
far  in  excess  of  the  value  of  thought,  and  so  we  extol 
his  grace  rather  than  the  vitality  of  his  content.  Only 
when  lauding  the  Southern  people  and  measuring  the 
extent  of  their  bravery  and  of  their  grief,  when  writ 
ing  "  Sentinel  Songs,"  when  perpetuating  the  chivalry 
of  Lee,  when  uttering  "The  Prayers  of  the  South," 
was  he  at  his  best. 

Whatever  there  was  of  mysticism  in  his  verse  came 
from  the  font  of  the  Catholic  Church;  Father  Ryan 
was  almost  wholly  devoid  of  a  constructive  imagina 
tion  ;  and  one  will  seek  in  vain  for  any  indication 
of  a  sense  of  humor.  Indeed,  the  poet  lived  among- 
scenes  not  constituted  for  laughter,  and  after  his  serv 
ices  in  the  army,  he  longed  oftenest  for  quiet  and 
aloofness.  "A  Land  Without  Ruins"  is  a  "land 
without  memories,"  he  wrote,  and  he  was  more  in  com 
munion  afterwards  with  the  "deathless  dead,"  what 
ever  his  association  as  priest  or  lecturer  with  the  living. 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  351 

Life  was  "the  shadow  of  sadness/'  while  the  rapture 
of  eternal  rest  was  "the  sunshine  of  gladness."  It 
was  as  though  prayer  had  been  answered  when  death 
found  Father  Ryan  in  retirement  in  a  Franciscan 
monastery  at  Louisville,  Ky.,  working  upon  a  "Life 
of  Christ/' 

The  destiny  of  such  a  poet  depends  very  largely 
upon  associative  value,  upon  local  recollection.  "  The 
Sword  of  Robert  Lee  "  and  "  The  Conquered  Banner  " 
will  outlive  "Poems:  Patriotic,  Religious,  Miscel 
laneous,"  in  the  bulk.  There  was  small  range  to 
Father  Ryan's  instrument,  and  so  the  lack  of  variety 
only  accentuates  the  recurrence  of  the  same  subjects. 
In  all  probability  he  had  read  Tennyson,  but  with 
small  effect,  for  the  church  significance  of  his  "  De 
Profundis "  and  the  lyrical  quality  of  his  "  Song 
of  the  River"  are  hardly  to  be  compared  with  such 
lines  as  "  Out  of  the  deep,  my  child,  out  of  the  deep," 
or  those  in  "The  Brook."  In  a  sense,  he  is  entitled 
to  the  claim  of  a  household  poet,  with  all  the  sincerity 
but  without  any  of  the  ample  vision  of  Longfellow. 
A  man  so  personal  in  his  expression  could  not  escape 
in  his  verse  the  autobiographical  note;  his  life  left 
its  impress  everywhere;  illness  swept  over  him  and 
lent  him  topic  for  song;  death  deprived  him  of  rela 
tives  and  his  grief  found  outlet  in  words.  His  Mo 
bile  parish  was  subject  for  poetry,  his  visit  to  Rome 
and  Pope  Pius  IX.  found  record  in  like  fashion — 
but  above  all,  his  mood  colored  his  verse — a  predom 
inating  sad  tone  which  was  saved  from  being  despond 
ent  by  his  faith.  Beyond  this,  Father  Ryan  did  not 
seek  to  go. 

In  fact,  such  poetry  as  that  of  Father  Ryan  went 
so  far  and  no  further;  it  fulfilled  a  personal  need  and 
reflected  a  local  value,  betokening  a  local  experience. 
Though  human  nature  rises  above  such  limitation,  the 
Southern  writer  found  it  a  handicap;  his  philosophy 


352    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

hardly  exceeded  the  demand  of  the  occasion ;  his  ob 
servation  was  content  with  immediate  surroundings. 
There  was  a  fixity  to  his  point  of  contact  that  forced 
him  to  sum  up  the  whole  world  in  terms  of  his  own 
making.  If  he  stepped  outside  of  this,  he  was  in 
unfamiliar  atmosphere,  and  he  showed  it.  No  better 
illustration  of  this  than  in  Mrs.  Wilson's  attempt 
to  keep  pace  with  the  scientific  development  of  recent 
times,  and  her  futile  efforts  to  oppose  to  the  progres 
sive  stream  a  current  almost  spent,  and  attractive  only 
as  a  part  of  evolution,  of  mental  and  spiritual  develop 
ment. 

Yet  Mrs.  Wilson  had  the  critical  perspective, — not 
strong  enough,  it  is  true,  to  overbalance  her  old  regime 
narrowness,  but  sufficiently  active  to  place  her  at  odds 
with  the  new  order.  Such  provincial  outlook  had 
but  one  large  redeeming  quality — a  flavor  which,  for 
a  better  word,  we  term  charm.  The  novelist  reach 
ing  out  for  broader  experience,  for  general  characteri 
zation,  cannot  exceed  training;  in  such  an  atmosphere, 
literature  becomes  "  fixed  "  by  an  accepted  status  of 
culture.  As  for  the  South,  there  was  evident  every 
where  a  sectarian  distrust  of  any  intellectual  adjust 
ment  outside  the  confines  of  custom  and  sanction. 
That  is  why  the  vision  was  narrow,  however  limitless 
the  courtesy.  The  critic  allowed  his  local  pride  to 
accentuate  the  small  occurrences  which  were  mag 
nified  because  of  his  participation  in  them,  and  so 
we  have  such  reminiscences  as  T.  C.  De  Leon's  "  Beaux 
and  Belles  of  the  Sixties,"  with  a  special  appeal  for 
those  alone  familiar  with  the  field,  and  more  a  cata 
loguing  of  names  than  a  simple  recounting  of  the 
social  life  of  individuals  in  the  aggregate.  The  poet, 
on  the  other  hand,  kept  a  record  of  passing  emotion ; 
his  muse  was  imitative  though  the  impulse  came  natu 
rally  ;  he  was  handicapped  by  two  phases  of  his  work — 
there  was  the  casual  manner  of  his  singing,  his  energies 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  353 

being  dedicated  to  other  duties;  there  was  his  local 
fame  which  imposed  upon  him  the  exercise  of  a  poet- 
laureate.  It  is  difficult  to  determine  how  far  James 
Barren  Hope  (1827-1887)  would  have  progressed  had 
he  not  been  regarded  as  a  special  singer. 

The  occasional  poem,  therefore,  appears  in  duplicate 
and  triplicate;  in  a  certain  sense  it  transplanted  ora 
tory,  and  Hope  often  was  called  upon  to  deliver  metri 
cal  addresses.  Timrod  also  celebrated  in  verse  what 
Charleston  accomplished  in  deed — the  opening  of  a 
new  theater,  the  dedication  of  a  cemetery,  the  anniver 
sary  of  an  asylum — a  conventional  lyric  expression  of 
feeling.  Southern  poetry  was  hardly  the  deep  measure 
of  Southern  character,  but  was  chiefly  an  indication 
of  response  drawn  from  character  by  the  moment. 
But  the  impulse  of  a  warm  heart  is  only  one  part  of 
true  poetry;  the  seer,  the  seeker,  are  essential  to  the 
lasting  work — those  who  within  themselves,  irrespec 
tive  of  time  and  place,  have  ''murmurs  and  scents 
of  the  infinite  sea."  Timrod's  war  poetry  is  tinctured 
with  a  bitterness,  a  defiance,  very  different  from  the 
natural  freshness  and  sentiment  of  his  other  verse; 
his  "  Carolina  "  and  "  A  Cry  to  Arms  "  are  filled  with 
hatred  for  the  despot,  with  proud  glory  in  the  death 
of  "  the  startled  Huns !  "  The  red  stream  brought  no 
compassion  to  his  pen;  it  scaled  the  heights  of  ballad 
defiance;  his  faith  was  in  the  God  of  Battle. 

Unfortunately,  occasional  poetry  is  forced  in  its 
expression;  much  is  furnished  it  which  the  poet  can 
not  disregard;  his  audience  expects  something  which 
he  has  to  give.  It  differs  from  a  voluntary  desire  to 
express  personal  emotion  over  an  occurrence,  such  as 
John  Reuben  Thompson  wrote  on  "Ashby."  The 
Southern  warrior  instilled  the  purest  emotion  in  the 
Southern  ballad,  nowhere  better  seen  than  in  the  lyric 
quality  of  Randall's  "  Pelham." 

These  poets  of  the  South  are  such  casual  singers 


354    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

that  no  critic  may  venture  to  discuss  them  at  length ; 
their  tone  and  their  excellences  and  their  faults  are 
so  similar.  To  the  majority  of  readers,  Thompson 
(1823-1873)  is  remembered  chiefly  because  of  his  as 
sociation  with  the  Literary  Messenger  (1847).  Though 
a  graduate  lawyer,  his  career  was  that  of  the  journal 
ist,  and  when  the  magazine  activity  in  the  South  re 
ceives  due  consideration,  it  will  be  found  that  the 
Southern  Field  and  Fireside  (1859)  and  the  New 
York  Evening  Post  (1866)  owed  much  to  his  labor. 
Thompson's  life  is  an  example  of  the  arduous  fate  of 
the  literary  man  in  the  South ;  he  wrote  promiscu 
ously;  he  corresponded  with  the  London  Index,  which 
was  the  Confederate  organ  for  England ;  he  traveled 
abroad,  was  in  the  employ  of  the  Government ;  worked 
in  the  Virginia  State  library;  edited  various  unsuccess 
ful  papers;  and  in  many  capacities  served  Governor 
Letcher  of  Virginia.  If  one  consider  this  in  connec 
tion  with  his  poor  health,  Thompson  will  embody  in 
his  person  one  of  the  tragedies  of  literary  life  in  the 
South.  He  was  a  brilliant  man  who,  when  he  died, 
passed  from  the  immediate  view  of  those  who  listened 
to  him  as  a  speaker,  as  a  lecturer,  as  a  journalist;  the 
new  generation  turned  to  others.  The  range  of  his 
poetry  stretches  over  two  periods;  he  wrote  with  a 
close  knowledge  of  Foe,  he  sang  dirges  on  the  deaths 
of  Harrison  and  Zachary  Taylor.  Philip  Pendleton 
Cooke  was  a  friend,  and  he  was  able,  as  editor,  to 
further  John  Esten  Cooke.  Poems  were  read  from 
manuscript  to  the  public,  then  they  were  placed  in 
newspapers  and  lost.  That  was  largely  the  fate  of 
Thompson,  though  he  nobly  filled  his  small  sphere ;  he 
sent  one  "  ringing  ballad "  down  the  years,  as  Mrs. 
Preston  said,  referring  to  "The  Death  of  Stuart," 
and  his  loyalty  made  him  loved. 

It  were  indeed  well  to  mention  such  service  casually, 
not  that  it  would  fail  "to  rank  the  same  with  God," 


CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD  355 

whatever  the  intensity  of  the  effort,  but  in  perspective 
it  is  only  one  drop  in  the  progress  of  life;  it  is 
of  value  simply  because  it  is  in  the  current.  James 
Barron  Hope  might  be  dismissed  with  what  has  already 
been  suggested,  for  his  varied  activities  only  took  from 
the  permanent  value  of  his  poetry  which  was  so  mo 
mentary,  so  personal,  and,  in  some  respects,  so  imi 
tative. 

Hope  was  a  Virginian  to  the  core,  a  student  of 
William  and  Mary  (1847),  and  a  graduate  of  law, 
public  responsibility  being  placed  upon  him  early  in 
life.  It  would  seem  that  in  him  were  epitomized  some 
of  the  characteristics  of  any  son  of  any  landed  pro 
prietor.  He  had  been  in  the  Navy,  had  had  an  affair 
of  honor,  and  had  gained  recognition  as  a  poet  under 
the  nom  de  plume,  Henry  Ellen  Esquire,  before  he 
had  reached  majority.  As  early  as  1857,  already 
known  to  the  readers  of  The  Literary  Messenger,  he 
published  "  Leoni  di  Monota  and  Other  Poems " 
whose  chief  claim  to  recognition  seems  to  have  been 
that  it  contained  "  The  Charge  of  Balaklava,"  so  be- 
praised  by  G.  P.  R.  James,  the  novelist,  then  British 
Consul  at  Richmond,  and  so  preserved  because  of  its 
resemblance  to  Tennyson;  it  has  undoubted  spirit,  but 
an  unpoetic  balance  that  mingles  melodrama  and  com 
monplace  expression  with  spiritual  uplift. 

It  was  not  long  before  his  pen  was  engaged  in 
perpetuating  the  occasion. 

But  even  Hope's  metrical  addresses  and  his  sincere 
sentiments  on  special  occasions  could  not  disguise  the 
weakness  of  his  verse;  he  possessed  no  ability  to 
sustain  his  figures  of  speech,  and  his  lines  limped  with 
a  conversational  glibness  that  detracted  from  the  po 
etic.  In  a  poem  read  before  Phi  Beta  Kappa,  in 
1858,  we  find  him  referring  to  Memory's  elbow  in  a 
most  corporeal  fashion,  while  his  seeming  indifference 
to  originality,  just  so  he  had  the  outlet  for  expres- 


356    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

sion,  forced  him  to  an  imitation  in  no  respects  note 
worthy. 

Hope's  ideas  were  always  of  a  high  nature;  but 
in  his  moral  aims,  he  inevitably  fell  into  a  didactic 
strain  which,  beside  its  prose  expression,  became  over- 
tiresome  and  long.  The  tragedy  of  it  all  lay  in  the 
fact  that  in  what  he  wrote  there  was  a  pretty  senti 
ment  which  might  have  gained  distinction  had  there 
been  any  evidence  of  care  and  discrimination.  The 
real  poet  would  not  associate  the  night  wind  with 
"sudden  squalls";  he  would  feel  the  inadequacy  of 
a  blank  verse  which  has  neither  metrical  exactness  nor 
color.  Yet  at  times  Hope's  pure  feeling  overcame 
these  limitations. 

In  such  verse  as  "  Libera  nos,  O  Domine,"  Hope's 
war  spirit  found  an  outlet ;  in  his  "  Washington  Ode  " 
there  is  typical  expression  of  the  oratorical  in  such 
a  line  as  "  My  answer's  brief,  'tis,  Citizens,  be 
cause  .  .  ." ;  his  verses  to  "  The  Poet-Priest  Ryan," 
poor  in  construction,  are  filled  with  an  excellent  boyish 
spirit.  Occasionally  he  would  conceive  some  distinct 
expression,  such  as : 

A  King  once  said  of  a  Prince  struck  down, 
"  Taller  he  seems  in  Death !  " 

but  historic  truth  to  him  was  always  viewed  in  a 
matter-of-fact  manner,  as  when,  on  epitomizing  the 
noble  career  of  Lee,  he  exclaimed : 

Who  shall  blame  the  social  order 
Which  gave  us  men  as  great  as  these? 

The  large  fact  about  Hope  was  that  his  verse  was 
devoid  of  imagination,  and  was  literal  in  its  construc 
tion  ;  even  in  the  simple  delineation  of  Nature,  his 
imitativeness  and  triteness  of  wording  destroyed  all 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  357 

claim  to  Southern  richness ;  he  versified  his  story  with 
much  faithfulness  but  with  little  spontaneity.  One 
of  his  very  last  acts  was  in  a  professional  capacity 
as  "Laureate,"  when  he  began  his  lines  on  Lee,  for 
the  monument  to  be  started  in  Richmond,  October  26, 
1887;  he  completed  the  poem  a  few  days  before  his 
death  on  September  15;  in  1881,  he  had,  through  act 
of  Congress,  been  delegated  to  prepare  an  ode  for  the 
Yorktown  Centennial.  From  all  accounts  Hope  was 
versatile  and  gentle ;  in  music  and  in  art  he  excelled ; 
his  manner  was  full  of  grace,  his  touch  that  of  a 
woman.  Some  called  him  "  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley," 
others  spoke  of  him  as  "  a  very  Chevalier  Bayard." 
Certain  it  is  that  as  a  Southern  poet  he  possessed  all 
the  excellences  and  all  the  weaknesses  of  his  section. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  SOUTHERN  SCHOOL  OF  POETRY 
I.  LANIER 


A  "SCHOOL"  betokens  some  unifying  principle  of 
philosophy  or  political  and  social  belief,  some  adher 
ence  to  a  set  code  of  artistic  principles.  We  have 
already  intimated  that  the  sympathy  which  bound  to 
gether  a  certain  number  of  Southern  poets  during  this 
period  was  aggravated  by  an  isolation  which  was 
partly  overcome  by  correspondence.  This  served  to 
emphasize  a  certain  devotion  for  ideals  which  were 
not  wholly  dependent  upon  the  course  of  events,  but 
were  made  manifest  through  a  spirit  of  reverence  for 
the  beautiful.  This  similar  mission  made  each  poet  a 
little  more  conscious  of  the  technical  phase  of  his 
work,  prompted  him  to  be  more  critical  of  what  he 
read  and  of  what  he  did. 

Such  a  school  as  that  which  contained  Lanier, 
Hayne,  Timrod,  Ticknor,  and  Mrs.  Preston  was  uni 
fied,  moreover,  by  a  similar  depression,  born  of  the 
tragedy  of  war.  Restrictions  consequent  upon  an  un 
steady  social  system  subjected  them  all  to  similar 
doubts,  misgivings,  grievings,  and  speculation.  This 
was  a  "  school,"  therefore,  of  mutual  sympathies,  of 
conscious  limitations,  of  interest  in  things  outside  of 
the  immediate  horizon.  Yet,  of  them  all,  Lanier  was 
the  only  one  to  look  afar,  to  trust  his  own  individual 
mental  and  spiritual  strength  beyond  the  boundaries 
of  accepted  beliefs  and  of  established  customs. ) 

Because  of  this,  we  prefer  to  regard  Lanier  from 

358 


CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD  359 

the  point  of  view  of  the  progressive  thinker,  rather 
than  merely  as  the  poet.  Judged  from  the  spirit 
ual  development  of  the  inner  man,  his  repeated  ques 
tionings  are  indicative  of  a  restless  spirit,  not  strug 
gling  against  expansion,  but  subjected  to  that  travail 
which  comes  to  all  those  who  would  change  the  for 
mal  plan  of  religion  without  altering  the  fundamental 
faith.  Apart  from  his  metrical  surprises,  his  lyric 
excellences,  his  felicitous  use  of  language  which  often 
accepted  archaic  form,  and  was  tempered  by  a  chivalric 
warmth  which  was  second  nature  to  him,  as  well 
as  showing  a  conscious  familiarity  with  Elizabethan 
ornateness — apart  from  that  happy  welding  of  thought 
with  music,  which  is  better  displayed  in  "  The  Sym 
phony  "  than  in  the  Centennial  "  Cantata,"  Lanier's 
pioneer  position  in  Southern  letters  is  the  one  large, 
significant  and  abiding  fact  in  his  short  but  distinctive 
life  (1842-1881). 

One  can  easily  account  for  his  chivalric  and  roman 
tic  strains  from  the  fact  that  on  his  father's  side  he 
was  Huguenot.  Believing  in  inherited  tendencies,  there 
is  likewise  significance  in  the  record  which  tells  how 
Nicholas  Lanier,  described  as  "  musician,  painter,  en 
graver,"  was  attached  to  the  patronage  of  James  I. 
and  of  the  two  King  Charleses,  and  wrote  music  for 
Jonson's  masks  as  well  as  for  Herrick's  love  songs. 
Looking  carefully  into  the  spiritual  expression  of 
Lanier's  character,  there  is  no  doubting  the  influence 
exerted  on  him  through  the  Scotch-Irish  inheritance 
on  his  mother's  side, — an  inheritance  which,  in  our 
casual  reference  to  the  migration  of  peoples,  we  spoke 
of  as  a  rich  vein  of  Puritanism  in  the  South,  under 
estimated  because,  to  the  general  mind,  Puritan  life 
is  always  associated  with  the  severity  of  the  Hebraic 
spirit.  Yet  at  the  basis  of  Lanier's  poems  is  that 
unshakable  confidence  in  God,  a  belief  in  every  ex 
action  to  be  placed  upon  the  soul,  which  always 


360    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

prompted  his  thought,  even  in  the  midst  of  question 
ings  raised  by  his  interest  in  physical  science. 

No  one  has  adequately  traced  the  social  life  of 
America,  which  varies  in  detail  from  State  to  State; 
the  chief  value  of  the  local  writers,  as  we  have  seen 
in  the  cases  of  Baldwin  and  Longstreet,  resides  in  the 
side-light  which  they  help  to  throw  upon  the  people 
of  that  time.  When  Lanier  went  to  Oglethorpe  Col 
lege,  after  a  boyhood  residence  in  Macon,  he  was 
already  steeped  in  the  Presbyterianism  of  Middle 
Georgia,  and  though  he  had  participated  in  what  Le 
Conte,  one  of  the  distinctive  men  of  science  in  the 
South,  described  as  "  the  boundless  hospitality  of  those 
times,"  he  in  no  sense  showed  any  apparent  inclina 
tion  for  a  Bohemian  existence.  He  went  to  college, 
however,  with  certain  tastes  already  manifest — his  love 
of  nature,  his  alertness  in  such  study  as  Macon  schools 
afforded,  his  inborn  attraction  toward  music,  which 
at  the  early  age  of  seven  found  satisfaction  in  a  home 
made  reed  flute,  his  orchestral  ambition,  and  his  read 
ing  tastes  which  thus  early  foreshadowed,  in  his  love 
for  the  romances  of  Froissart,  his  later  chivalric  books 
for  boys. 

There  followed  the  days  at  college  under  the  in 
spiration  of  James  Woodrow,  whose  championship  of 
physical  science  investigations  made  deep  impress 
upon  Lanier's  mind,  and  undoubtedly  afforded  him  a 
foundation  for  his  later  theories  regarding  verse  and 
music.  But  here  became  evident  the  characteristic 
note  of  Lanier's  work — his  seriousness,  his  almost 
passionate  devotion  to  study,  and  his  preference  for 
what  one  of  his  class-mates  described  as  "  the  quaint 
and  curious."  Lanier  did  not  abandon  the  healthy 
exuberance  of  the  college  student,  but  through  his 
natural  bent  for  the  arts  and  through  his  undisguised 
satisfaction  in  a  book,  he  was  regarded  by  his  asso 
ciates  as  an  exception  in  their  midst.  Indeed,  through 


CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD  361 

the  force  of  his  personality, — quiet,  earnest,  quick — 
he  developed,  at  the  very  beginning,  the  power  of  im 
parting  his  appreciation,  his  joy,  his  knowledge,  to 
others.  Quite  remarkable  it  was  in  the  South  to  find 
a  son  with  such  variety  of  taste  and  such  flexibility 
of  mind — to  sweep  the  range  of  literature  from  early 
Saxon  days;  to  take  in,  under  the  initial  guidance  of 
Carlyle,  and  in  later  intercourse  with  Bayard  Taylor, 
the  activity  of  German  thought. 

It  was  Lanier's  discernment  which  impresses  the 
critic  as  being  outside  the  general  trend  of  Southern 
literature;  his  ability  to  judge  impartially,  in  the  light 
of  universal  standards,  and  with  no  partisan  bitterness. 
Yet  Lanier  was  steeped  in  the  atmosphere  of  the 
South;  this  becomes  very  evident  in  "Tiger  Lilies" 
and  certainly  makes  of  "  Florida,"  done  as  a  piece  of 
hack  work,  something  more  than  a  guide  book  for 
commercial  exploitation.  Innately,  Lanier  was  the 
poet,  whatever  the  task  set  him ;  through  the  period  of 
unsettled  vocation,  he  was  constantly  testing  the  two 
vital  sparks  in  his  genius — music  and  verse  writing, — 
but  likewise,  his  intellectual  ambitiom  was  making 
itself  felt  in  the  college,  where  he  served  as  tutor  im 
mediately  after  graduation.  It  was  a  period  of  self- 
questioning,  as  his  note-books  will  show;  of  seeking 
beyond  his  environment,  in  fact,  beyond  the  limits  of 
American  education  to  what  German  universities 
might  afford.  This  looking  forward  added  weight 
and  significance  to  the  figure  of  Lanier,  the  scholar, 
who,  if  facts  are  carefully  examined,  will  be  found  to 
have  been  one  of  the  first  examples  of  the  university 
investigator  in  the  modern  and  American  sense. 

In  what  he  did,  Lanier  could  hardly  be  accused 
of  contenting  himself  with  dreams ;  he  was  as  practical 
in  his  sphere  of  activity  as  conditions  would  allow; 
he  made  the  best  use  of  what  was  close  at  hand, 
and  it  was  fortunate  that  his  horizon  stretched  beyond 


362    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

the  Mason  and  Dixon  line,  for  contact  with  the  out 
side  world  added  to  his  stature.  Thus  filled  with  the 
desires  of  youth,  Lanier  suddenly  found  himself  in 
the  midst  of  war ;  it  came  upon  him  widi  a  furor  which 
is  partly  described  in  "  Tiger  Lilies.  He  entered 
the  lists,  as  others  did,  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  right 
eousness,  and  it  was  only  after  the  first  ardor  of  the 
Crusader  had  passed  away,  when  the  enormity  of  the 
slave  question  began  to  dawn  upon  him,  when  war 
began  to  look  its  worst  with  its  "  miscellaneous  mass 
of  poverty,  starvation,  recklessness,  and  ruin,"  that  he 
was  prompted,  with  his  accustomed  inclination,  to 
weigh  cause  and  effect,  to  examine  into  logical  reasons. 
This  contemplation  came  after  the  conflict,  when  the 
South  most  needed  wisdom  to  point  a  way  through  the 
dark  clouds  of  Reconstruction.  The  immediate  effect 
of  war  upon  Lanier,  however,  was  to  warm  his  chivalric 
nature  to  action,  and  to  set  his  imagination  building 
a  Confederacy  of  lasting  renown.  Oglethorpe  College 
became  a  barrack,  and  the  Macon  Volunteers  had  their 
numbers  swelled. 

Lanier's  war  record  is  one  of  hardship  rather  than 
of  important  conflict;  it  graded  from  initial  novelty 
to  ague  and  picket  duty.  The  excitement  of  Richmond 
and  Malvern  Hill  was  not  sufficient  for  the  poet,  who 
carried  with  him  the  flute  now  so  closely  identified  with 
his  name;  he  and  his  brother  were  therefore  trans 
ferred  to  the  signal  service.  Curious  it  is  to  note  that 
even  war  could  not  suppress  the  student  who,  finding 
himself  at  Petersburg,  frequented  the  city  library;  nor 
could  the  exactions  of  his  new  service  keep  his  flute 
silent  in  camp,  for  he  often  went  serenading  "  with 
one  general,  six  captains,  and  one  lieutenant." 

Thus,  in  the  midst  of  scout  duty,  the  romance  of 
life  came  to  Lanier  in  the  shape  of  Miss  Mary  Day, 
whom  he  was  soon  to  marry ;  love  and  excitement  were 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD  363 

the  proper  food,  and  the  troubadour  spirit  filled  him 
with  daring,  which  resulted  in  exactions  on  his  physi 
cal  strength.  He  and  his  brother  moved  through  the 
country,  leaving  behind  memories  of  music  and  gentle 
manners,  and  given  any  time  of  quiet,  Lanier's  mind 
would  follow  in  new  paths  of  literature.  It  is  even 
told  how  the  enemy  captured  his  small  volume  of  the 
poets,  and  a  German  glossary,  and  "  Aurora  Leigh  " ; 
war  could  not  affright  his  intellect,  tradition  could 
not  stem  the  strong  tide  of  his  inclination.  There  is 
not  a  moment  in  Lanier's  life  when  his  nature  was  not 
unfolding  to  the  realization  of  greater  things.  Even 
when  service  as  signal  officer  on  a  blockade-runner 
led  to  capture  and  four  months*  imprisonment,  he  took 
care  to  fix  indelibly  upon  his  mind  the  details  of  con 
ditions,  afterwards  described  in  "Tiger  Lilies";  and 
according  to  his  associate  in  prison,  none  other  than 
Mr.  John  B.  Tabb,  the  ordeal  of  confinement  revealed 
the  Galahad  qualities  of  his  nature.  He  came  from 
the  struggle,  emaciated  and  weak,  with  a  record  for 
bravery  in  personal  service. 

/It  was  not  easy  for  a  man  of  Lanier's  temperament 
to  settle  down  to  a  mundane  struggle  with  conditions. 
There  were  graver  problems  to  consider  after  the 
war  than  the  practice  of  art,  and  though  he  might 
write  about  it,  and  ponder  over  it,  and  read  about 
it,  Lanier  was  part  of  a  life  which  was  readjusting  in 
the  light  of  new  problems — a  land  riven  and  seared, 
where  sustenance  was  the  uppermost  thought  in  the 
minds  of  those  who  returned  home  and  to  the  fields, 
stunned  and  physically  weakened  by  insufficient  food 
and  clothing,  j 

First  as  tutor  in  Macon,  then  as  hotel  clerk  in 
Montgomery,  he  faced  the  poverty  before  him.  Con 
sumption  had  killed  his  mother  just  when  he  himself 
was  in  the  throes  of  illness,  and  now  (1866),  writing 


364     THE   LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

North,  his  active  brain  employed  in  the  Exchange 
Hotel  began  to  rebel  against  the  monotony  and  stag 
nation  of  the  town.  His  thoughts  turned  North. 

He  was  simply  subjected  to  the  poverty  which  held 
the  whole  South  in  vise-like  grip,  and  beneath  which 
the  spirits  of  Hayne  and  Timrod  bent.  The  invader 
had  not  respected  any  evidences  of  tradition,  and  libra 
ries  had  been  sacrificed  in  a  night.  The  Southerners 
had  been  used  to  a  system  institutionally  wrong,  but 
there  was  no  guarantee  that  the  new  system  would 
do  more  than  add  to  their  responsibility,  without  adding 
to  their  resources.  Lanier  watched  carefully,  and,  by 
1867,  saw  that,  in  spite  of  the  ripe  conditions  for  in 
jury  of  all  sorts  within  the  South  itself,  there  was 
calmness  of  Southern  temperament,  born  of  a  spirit 
in  the  people  which  rose  above  law  and  above  the  gall 
ing  restraint  of  military  order. 

Lanier  was  not  the  sort  to  brood;  events  conduced 
to  show  that  with  many  of  his  associates  he  was  intent 
on  working,  and  when  he  was  not  at  the  hotel,  he  was 
playing  the  pipe  organ  at  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
further  developing  that  passion  for  music  which  act 
uated  his  whole  life.  Sidney  and  Clifford  were  both 
writing  in  the  interim,  and  planning  to  go  North  for 
a  literary  market. 

Separate  events  in  Lanier's  progress  belong  to  his 
biography  which  Professor  Mims  has  adequately 
written.  It  is  easy,  when  a  man's  life  is  accomplished, 
to  discard  all  but  those  events  which  best  vivify  the 
golden  strand  of  purpose  known  as  his  mission.  The 
provincialism  of  the  South  stands  out  in  proportion 
to  the  mental  hunger  of  the  Southerner.  With 
Lanier's  first  trip  to  New  York,  in  1867,  began  his 
literary  career,  which  he  was  not  to  adopt  officially 
until  1873 — a  period  of  three  years  intervening,  in 
which  time  he  became  a  husband,  a  lawyer,  and  a 
traveler,  served  his  term  in  the  Peabody  Orchestra, 


CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD  365 

and  began  his  struggle  with  physical  weakness  which 
finally  ended  in  his  death. 

When  Lanier's  mind  came  in  touch  with  brisk  life, 
he  rapidly  evinced  his  natural  bent  of  the  student. 
Even  when  "  Tiger  Lilies,"  which  he  had  brought  with 
him,  was  printed,  the  critics  found  concentrated  in 
the  book  those  tendencies  which  afterwards,  in  sepa 
rate  manner,  developed  a  distinctive  phase  of  his  art. 
They  saw  in  it  the  scholar,  the  poet,  the  antique  quaint- 
ness — which  sounds  artificial,  separated  from  the  en 
thusiasm  which  Lanier  always  felt  for  chivalric  litera 
ture, — and  the  philosophy  which  was  ever  a  queer 
mixture  of  physics  and  metaphysics. 

We  will  not  analyze  Lanier,  in  order  to  measure  how 
far  he  caught  the  atmosphere  of  Southern  life,  thought 
and  environment ;  he  was  not  a  novelist  any  more  than 
Longfellow,  but  as  Mims  says,  it  were  safe  to  give 
to  "  Tiger  Lilies  "  the  same  emphasis  we  bestow  upon 
"  Hyperion."  It  is  autobiographical,  as  the  first  works 
of  the  creative  artist  always  are ;  it  is  descriptive,  with 
an  admixture  of  the  literal  and  the  imaginative;  it 
is,  from  its  local  point  of  view,  observant  of  those 
strains  of  tongue  and  manner  which  later,  in  the  stu 
dent,  developed  such  intense  interest  in  Anglo-Saxon, 
and  in  the  speech  of  the  Elizabethans. 

It  must  have  been  difficult  for  Lanier  to  decline 
all  proposals  of  traveling  to  Germany,  as  he  most  de 
sired  to  do,  but  though  he  was  in  spirit  able  to  rise 
above  the  throes  of  Reconstruction,  he  was  in  every 
way  affected  by  the  paralyzed  state  of  affairs.  He 
was  teaching  during  this  dire  period,  and  trying  to 
instill  seeds  of  knowledge  in  soil  not  prepared  for  it. 
Perhaps,  in  Prattville,  he  detected  a  rude  speech  which 
sounded  like  music  to  his  ear ;  there  are  even  now,  in 
Tennessee  and  in  North  Carolina,  men  of  uncouth 
living,  with  a  speech  so  quaint  as  to  be  another  lan 
guage.  Lanier  could  never  discard  from  his  style  the 


366    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

odd  and  unusual  expression,  which  Hayne  at  this  time 
said  would  have  been  thoroughly  artificial,  had  it  not 
been  second  nature. 

The  dark  pressure  of  want  finds  reflection  in  some 
of  Lanier's  poetry;  he  sang  of  languishing  trade  and 
dull  work  with  as  much  fervor  as  he  was  later  to 
sound  the  warning,  when  exacting  trade  threatened  his 
temple  of  art.)  But  now  he  saw  clearly  the  thought 
less  imposition  of  law,  and  he  realized  the  necessity 
for  a  great  man,  one  "  tall  enough  to  see  over  the 
whole  country,"  for  the  time  had  come  when  "the 
horizon  of  cleverness  is  too  limited."  Thus,  despair 
ing  of  any  hope  of  philosophical  practice  outside  and 
around  him,  Lanier  himself  applied  his  mind  to 
thoughts  that  afterwards  found  their  way  into  "  Ret 
rospects  and  Prospects/'  and  it  must  be  said  that  this 
phase  of  his  philosophical  taste  was  clearer  than  it 
afterwards  became  in  some  of  his  longer  and  later 
poems.  The  dark  days  of  1868  found  Lanier  in 
Prattville,  studying  German  and  Lucretius,  writing 
an  occasional  poem,  philosophizing,  and  facing  the 
responsibilities  of  married  life. 

Lanier's  constructive  imagination  was  directed  to 
ward  critical  work ;  his  survey  of  "  Nature-Meta 
phors  "  during  these  days  illustrates  a  double  tendency 
found  in  his  poetry,  to  speculate  abstractly  and  too 
generally — as  when  he  defined  the  nature-metaphor  as 
a  figure  "  in  which  soul  gives  life  to  matter,  and  matter 
gives  Antaean  solidity  to  soul," — and  to  build  impres 
sions  by  a  comparison  which  revealed  a  keen  literary 
appreciation,  as  when  he  wrote  that  "  Ancient  thought 
was  a  huge  genie;  modern  thought  is  a  genie  or  a 
lightsome  Ariel  at  will."  This  method,  sometimes 
too  inclusive  to  be  satisfactorily  explained,  flashes 
through  "Shakspere  and  his  Forerunners,"  adding 
to  its  agreeableness  without  adding  to  its  weight. 

It  was  in  1868  that  Lanier  followed  the  inevitable 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  367 

path  for  Southerners,  that  is,  the  law.  He  was  con 
scientious  and  faithful  in  his  study  and  in  the  prepara 
tion  of  his  "abstracts/'  showing  that  untiring  appli 
cation  which  later,  when  he  went  to  Johns  Hopkins, 
served  him  in  such  excellent  stead.  Perhaps  it  was 
this  regularity  of  work  that  permitted  him  to  take 
stock  of  Southern  conditions;  perhaps  it  was  the  un 
erring  law  of  his  nature  that  brought  him  with  each 
year  nearer  the  realization  of  what  the  New  South 
was  to  be.  This  much  we  do  know,  that,  in  1870, 
while  delivering  a  memorial  address  in  Macon,  he 
pleaded  for  tranquillity  which  would  make  the  South 
great  in  misfortune.  The  man  who,  in  the  midst  of 
Reconstruction,  could  unceasingly  cry  that  the  South 
erners  had  "  risen  immeasurably  above  all  vengeance  " 
was  one  who  had  a  far  vision.' 

It  is  well  for  us  to  ponder  the  heroic  fortitude  of 
these  men.  Lanier  was  sustained  by  the  encourage 
ment  of  Hayne,  whom  the  war  had  left  destitute,  and 
with  whom  a  literary  correspondence  was  begun;  in 
this  way,  Hayne  was  able  to  judge  of  Lanier's  un 
feigned  love  for  antiquarian  lore;  he  was  able  to  see 
how  zealously  Lanier  followed  contemporary  work, 
showing  enthusiasm  for  Browning,  comparing  the  in 
tricacies  of  his  verse  with  the  coils  of  a  lasso  being 
flung  unerringly.  Lanier's  letters  contained  prose 
chips  of  poetry,  as  complete  in  themselves  as  his 
"  Poem  Outlines,"  a  slender  volume  consisting  of  frag 
ments  of  poetic  thought.  He  had  quick  perception. 

Ill-health  now  turned  Lanier  into  something  of  a 
wanderer,  spending  summers  in  Georgia,  Virginia 
and  Tennessee ;  wherever  he  found  himself,  his  letters 
revealed  how  quickly  his  natural  thirst  for  beauty 
drew  satisfaction  from  the  best  around  him ;  his  pure 
enjoyment  of  nature  resulted  in  some  of  his  most 
vivid  expressions  in  prose.  What  has  to  be  admired 
most  about  this  pale,  sensitive  man  was  his  alive- 


368     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

ness  to  all  activity,  whether  it  be  the  Wall  Street  roar, 
or  the  singing-  of  Nilsson,  or  the  music  of  Wagner. 
And  as  further  evidence  of  his  wonderful  perception, 
we  find  him,  in  1870,  enraptured  with  the  music  of 
Wagner,  not  only  because  of  the  intellectual  stimula 
tion  in  it,  but  because  through  it  he  was  able  to  de 
termine  the  future  position  and  scope  of  the  orches 
tra.  Again  we  are  impressed  with  the  pioneer  char 
acter  of  the  man's  mind. 

These  flashes  from  the  anvil  of  genius  portended 
greater  things ;  with  a  pen  which  was  facile  and  vivid, 
he  could  send  away  descriptions  of  concerts  which 
throbbed  with  the  essence  of  his  own  being,  and  then, 
apart  from  the  rapture  which  oftentimes  swept  over 
him  and  left  him  weak,  he  could  pen  a  description  of 
San  Antonio  which  was  full  of  social  value.  In  a 
letter,  dated  from  that  city  in  1873,  a  year  marked 
by  monetary  depression  in  the  South,  Lanier  deter 
mined  finally  on  the  artist's  life;  amidst  a  set  of  Ger 
man  musicians,  he  found  the  true  scope  for  his  desire. 
In  those  days,  not  only  did  his  flute  whisper  to  him, 
but  he  also  composed  pieces  for  himself,  compositions 
\\herein  the  poet  in  him  used  musical  notes.  In  his 
own  person,  he  was  trying  to  reconcile  his  future 
theory  of  the  science  of  verse. 

Were  one  to  go  carefully  through  the  literary  re 
mains  of  Sidney  Lanier,  there  would  be  clearly  marked 
distinct  periods  in  the  development  of  his  short  life. 
With  his  final  determination  to  follow  art — for  he 
nad  written  eloquently  to  his  father,  telling  of  his  con 
viction  that  art  was  his  mission — there  begins  a  less 
sectional  period  of  his  life,  for  though  he  was  always 
to  possess  the  warmth  of  sentiment  and  the  courtesy 
of  manner  characterizing  Southern  civilization,  both 
as  a  student  and  as  a  musician  he  was  hereafter  to 
be  universally  interested  in  the  development  of  the 
art  movement.  Sociologically,  he  was  to  be  influenced 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  369 

by  historical  inheritance ;  spiritually,  he  was  to  exhibit 
evidences  of  a  certain  formal  training;  but  his  cath 
olicity  of  appreciation  soon  gave  him  a  distinctive  repu 
tation  in  the  country. 

?'  The  only  reality  in  the  world  "  is  how  Lanier  de 
fined  music.  When  he  settled  in  Baltimore,  as  flutist 
in  the  Peabody  Orchestra,  he  not  only  was  a  composer, 
but  had  gained  some  distinction  as  an  individual  player. 
In  his  appreciation  of  music,  his  pleasure  was  so  pain 
ful  as  to  impair  his  nervous  control;  yet  his  joy  was 
mingled  with  a  certain  humor,  as  when  he  found  him 
self  among  the  Germans  in  San  Antonio,  or  when  he 
actually  found  himself  a  salaried  member  of  the  or 
chestra.  There  was  no  doubting  his  musical  genius ; 
everyone  who  heard  his  flute  came  under  the  spell; 
music  fired  his  imagination;  the  orchestra  lived, 
breathed,  was  human  in  his  eyes.  Instead  of  putting 
the  thoughts  into  words,  his  pleasure  prompted  him  to 
song. 

But  he  was  doing  more ;  he  was  learning.  Lanier' s 
modesty  was  evident  through  his  assiduous  investiga 
tion.  He  was  not  content  with  the  flute  as  a  flute, 
or  with  music  as  mere  music ;  he  needs  must  know  of 
the  technique  beneath.  It  was  not  sufficient  that  a 
piece  appealed  to  him;  he  must  know  wherein  it  ap 
pealed.  So  that  we  obtain  the  musical  critic,  the  musi 
cal  physicist,  and  the  musical  historian.  With  all  the 
beauty  of  a  woman  in  his  nature,  he  had  also  the 
"  large  conception  of  a  man  " ;  the  world  between  Cho 
pin  and  Beethoven  was  his;  he  understood  lyricism, 
he  was  no  stranger  to  dynamic  and  primitive  force. 

Lanier  was  not  simply  the  musician  in  his  musical 
career ;  however  much  he  was  inclined  to  lave  his  soul 
in  harmony,  he  possessed  a  commanding  knowledge 
of  his  subject,  and  was  the  constructive  thinker.  It  was 
not  enough  that,  as  one  enthralled,  he  could  play  upon 
his  flute,  but  he  had  to  invent  an  instrument  of  his 


THE   LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

own  :  it  was  not  enough  that  he  should  be  an  integral 

part  of  the  orchestra  in  Baltimore,  but  he  had  to 

analyze  the  component  structure  of  the  organism.  This 

man.  naturally  given  to  the  emotional  and  to  the  artis- 

was  growing  in  intellectual  power  and  in  social 

He  reached  out  toward  the  masses  of  people 

':\   a   plan  to  educate  them   r  to    travel 

through  the  country  training  them  in  the  fine  relation- 


alone  content  with  this  scheme  of  imparting 
his  well-digested  views  to  others,  Lanier's  attention 
was  now  concerned  with  the  recent  discoveries  of 
Hehnholtz.  It  is  significant  to  bear  in  mind  this  pc 
thoroughness  in  dealing  with  science,  whether  his  in 
vestigations  be  utilized  in  such  a  poem  as  "  The  Bee  " 
or  in  such  a  lengthy  theory  as  "  The  Science  of  Eng- 
There  was  as  much  joy  to  him  in  the 
fact  that  his  observation  of  the  vibration  of  strings 
had  revealed  some  explanation  of  "the  difference  of 
'.".''."•;  /;.":.'  ;•;••  S*T  "^v  '.  •"  s:".:*V;"  :  s  .v  :  "•  \"  '..  .-.> 
there  was  in  his  discovery  of  some  Anglo-Saxon 


No  critic  could  accuse  Lanier  of  a  lack  of  thorough- 
.he  only  drawback  to  his  entire  poise  as  a  critic 
the  very  natural  fact  that*  as  a  musician,  he 
showed  certain  tastes  which  were  not  founded  on 
analysis,  but  on  preference.  He  composed,  as  we  have 
-:.  ; '.::  "..";.'  ••>:  "•  "  .\"V. ; ". JA:".  *".:-:  •••.:..  "  ":  re 
entitled  to  tftrtfJuksize  his  name.  He  wrote  iUuili  on 
the  orchestra  and  on  individual  musicians,  and,  in  a 
day  when  Wagner  was  far  from  being  understood 
or  accepted,  he  was  a  devout  follower,  and  prepared  a 
translation  of  the  "  RheingokL" 

His  observation  passed  mto  subtle  distinction,  il 
lustrating  his  tendency  to  philosophize;  he  would  not 
^  :.;.-;.-;  :.".  :-  :  .:-'  :.  ';• ,  -.••  '  '  -  -  A;:-;  :  >:-.:r  : 
as  of  any  value  save  as  it  symbolized  an  idea  and 
created  an  emotion.  As  a  Southerner,  swayed  by 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  371 

the  force  of  the  far  horizon,  this  passage  in  "  From 
Bacon  to  Beethoven,"  is  illuminating: 

"  From  the  negro  swaying  to  and  fro  with  the 
weird  rhythms  of  '  Swing  Low,  Sweet  Chariot/  from 
the  Georgia  Cracker  yelling  the  *  Old  Ship  of  Zion ' 
to  the  heavens  through  the  logs  of  the  piney  woods 
church,  to  the  intense  devotee  rapt  away  into  the 
Infinite  upon  a  mass  of  Palestrino,  there  comes  but 
one  testimony  to  the  substantial  efficacy  of  music,  in 
this  matter  of  helping  the  emotion  of  man  across  the 
immensity  of  the  known  into  the  boundaries  of  the 
unknown." 

Hence,  as  a  musician  in  Baltimore,  and  always 
thereafter,  Lanier's  theories  and  his  appreciations  were 
not  far  removed  from  his  times ;  he  was  following  his 
own  statement  that  "the  art  of  any  age  will  be  com 
plementary  to  the  thought  of  that  age."  His  belief  in 
the  expressive  value  of  music  sometimes  led  him  astray, 
but  that  did  not  detract  in  the  least  from  his  right 
ful  position  regarding  music  as  a  moral  agent,  or  from 
his  sound  prophecies  as  to  the  music  of  the  future. 
If  the  American  musician  would  know  who  first  had 
faith  in  his  potentialities,  let  him  turn  to  Lanier;  let 
him  read  the  analytic  opinion  in  such  extracts  as  are  to 
be  found  on  "  The  Physics  of  Music,"  and  then  turn 
to  his  discernment  as  seen  in  "  The  Orchestra  of  To 
day."  He  was  the  scientist  as  well  as  the  poet,  and 
where  the  musician  in  him  ended,  the  poet  began,  un 
less  we  wish  to  claim  that  the  two  were  one.  As 
though  writing  of  his  own  feeling,  he  once  said :  "  As 
music  takes  up  the  thread  which  language  drops, 
so  it  is  where  Shakespeare  ends  that  Beethoven  be- 
gins." 

Lanier  was  creative  in  his  musical  appreciation;  it 
was  his  imagination  which  raised  programme  music 
to  the  position  it  deserves  when  it  is  selected  with 
discrimination.  The  quality  of  that  imagination, 
throbbing  as  well  with  rich  emotion,  is  best  seen  in  his 


372    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

letter  describing  the  "  Hunt  of  Henry  IV.,"  where  ro 
mance,  full  reality,  and  picturesque  expression  came 
close  upon  each  other.  Quite  as  remarkable  is  his  anal 
ysis  of  Beethoven's  Seventh  Symphony,  where  na 
ture,  and  passion,  and  humanity  all  enter  into  the  mu 
sician's  expression  of  "the  awful  physical  facts  of 
birth  and  death." 

Thus  hastily,  we  reach  the  conclusion  that  it  was 
Lanier's  full  knowledge  of  music  which  prevented  him 
from  being  a  composer ;  he  was  much  more  ambitious 
to  develop  the  love  of  music  through  the  country,  and 
as  early  as  1867  he  was  strongly  advocating  the  offi 
cial  recognition  of  a  course  of  music  in  our  American 
colleges.  Indeed,  if  not  by  appointment,  at  least  by 
adoption,  Lanier  was  the  first  real  professor  of  the 
science  of  music  in  this  country.  He  had  a  literary  per 
spective  of  his  subject,  as  well  as  having  reached  an 
unshakable  belief  in  the  philosophic  position  of  music 
in  the  world  of  God,  wherein  it  would  be  "  the  church 
of  the  future,"  and  melody  would  seek  to  solve  the 
mystery  of  the  unknown.  Such  was  Lanier,  the  mu 
sician. 

The  poet's  development,  rather  than  the  mere  facts 
of  his  life,  forms  a  very  tempting  subject  for  close  and 
thorough  analysis.  Though  he  was  so  deeply  en 
grossed  in  music  and  in  the  life  of  Baltimore,  he  was 
as  well  concerned  with  poetry  and  with  the  life  of 
the  South.  In  the  summer  of  1874,  he  combined  his 
feeling  for  both  in  "  Corn,"  a  more  natural  expression 
of  his  recent  visit  South  than  "  Florida,"  which  was  a 
commission.  This  poem  may  be  regarded  as  Lanier's 
entrance  into  literature  as  a  profession:  it  represented 
his  extension  of  fame,  for  it  attracted  considerable 
comment  after  its  publication  in  Lippincott's  Magazine 
for  February,  1875. 

In  many  respects,  "  Corn "  is  representative  of 
Lahier's  characteristics  as  a  poet;  in  its  metrical  ar- 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  373 

rangement,  and  in  its  tendency  to  over-extend  its  state 
ment  and  application,  it  is  much  akin  to  "The  Sym 
phony  " ;  even  the  flow  of  its  lines  into  short  expres 
sions  of  sound  and  color  is  thus  early  natural  with 
him,  as  well  as  his  cumulative  rhyme  vagaries  whose 
ease  alone  is  measure  of  their  effectiveness.  The 
luxuriance  of  scene  is  striking,  and  the  expression  of  it 
apt  without  being  inevitable.  Lanier's  use  of  com 
pounds,  his  tendency  to  over-personification,  his  pecu 
liar  use  of  the  adjective,  are  all  to  be  found  in  this 
poem.  We  cannot  say  that,  like  Keats'  "Ode  to  Au 
tumn,"  "Corn"  is  majestically  rich  in  color;  his  ex 
pression  of  Southern  surroundings  throbbed  with  those 
delicacies  which  lent  to  his  observation  what  music 
had  accustomed  him  to  hear;  heart-beats,  tremblings, 
the  hum  of  song,  the  echo  of  kisses,  fragmentary 
whispers,  under-talks,  inarticulate  tone — these  were 
his  nature  impressions.  This  sifting  of  beauty  upon 
his  soul  in  such  wise  betokened  the  musician ;  it  never 
decreased  and  was  as  strong  in  1880,  when  "  Sunrise  " 
was  written,  as  in  1875. 

"  Corn  "  abounds  in  the  chivalric,  and  it  contains 
the  lyrical  grace  of  "  Rose  Morals  " ;  but  it  likewise  has 
the  social  breadth  of  view,  later  to  be  seen  in  Lanier's 
critical  comments  on  the  New  South,  when  he  dis 
cussed  the  future  value  of  the  small  farm;  it  has 
clearly  defined  his  contempt  for  barter,  so  thoroughly 
emphasized  in  "  The  Symphony."  In  his  thought  he 
was  inclined  to  give  the  same  latitude  to  which  music 
accustomed  him;  that  is  why  his  philosophy  is  gen 
eralized,  and  his  deep  religious  convictions  are  ex 
pressed  in  picturesque  liberality.  In  its  measure  of 
reaction  against  denominational  restriction,  Lanier's 
spiritual  side  is  most  interesting;  it  shows  a  gradual 
departure  from  the  conventional  formalism  of  his  early 
years.  We  find  expression  of  this  broadening  in  "  The 
Marshes  of  Glynn";  his  human  view  of  Christianity 


374    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

fills  the  exquisite  "  Ballad  of  Trees  and  the  Master," 
and  mounts  to  the  very  highest  declaration  of  broad 
faith  in  "  The  Crystal."  Here,  in  this  latter  poem, 
we  have  the  cosmopolitan  taste  of  Lanier,  which  flows 
so  readily  into  intense  critical  expression,  the  mind 
being  so  acute  for  every  shade  of  appreciation  that 
one  has  difficulty  in  fully  digesting  the  acumen  of  the 
thought. 

Professor  Charles  W.  Kent  has  given  some  space 
to  an  analysis  of  Lanier,  the  poet.  In  his  attitude  to 
ward  nature,  he  was  not  as  definite  or  as  scientific  as 
Tennyson  in  such  verse  as  "  Flower  in  the  crannied 
wall "  or  "  The  Higher  Pantheism,"  nor  can  one  say 
that  he  ever  approached  his  views  on  life  as  know 
ingly  as  Tennyson  did  in  such  a  poem  as  "  De  Profun- 
dis."  A  close  view  of  Lanier's  work  would  lead  us 
to  infer  that,  after  his  intellect  had  questioned  some 
of  the  old  tenets  of  faith  and  forced  him  to  relinquish 
them,  it  was  instinct,  based  upon  fundamental  qualities 
of  character,  that  gave  him  a  satisfactory  hold  upon 
God  and  Nature. 

,/^Now,  this  love  of  Lanier,  abounding  in  all  his  poems, 
resulted  in  two  essential  strains  throughout  his  work ; 
these  were  the  eternal  love  in  which  lies  the  explana 
tion  of  all  mystery,  and  the  special  love  in  which 
abides  the  remedy  for  all  social  ills?)  Bound  up  in 
the  music  motive  of  "The  Symphony,"  we  find  the 
pulsing  of  these  strings,  and  even  in  the  fullness  of 
his  melody,  he  gives  to  music  the  highest  of  provinces 
— defining  it  as  "  Love  in  search  of  a  word."  Here 
we  may  note  the  ecstatic  lyricism  of  Lanier,  of  which 
unfortunately  he  often  lost  control. 

The  appellation  of  the  "  White  Christ  "  is  pecu 
liarly  fit  for  Lanier;  but  so  ingrained  was  the  ethical 
in  his  nature  that  he  often  willingly  sacrificed  the 
poetic  for  its  sake.  This  was  a  fault  which  reacted 
in  another  direction,  destroying  the  unity  of  his  longer 


CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD  375 

poems.  "  The  Psalm  of  the  West "  is  marred  by  the 
distinct  breaks  in  its  imagery  and  in  its  structural 
plan;  for  the  song  is  weakened  in  the  narrative,  and 
the  philosophy  is  embedded  in  a  prolix  use  of  personi 
fication.  Yet  at  times,  Lanier  was  most  successful 
in  the  dramatic ;  in  this  very  "  Psalm  of  the  West " 
he  writes  a  series  of  sonnets  which  are  pictorially 
distinctive  and  intensively  passionate.  But  never 
was  Lanier  able  to  escape  a  tendency  to  experiment, 
doubling  up  on  his  thought  even  as  he  did  in  his 
rhyme,  and  sometimes  erring  on  the  side  of  music,  as 
Whitman  erred  on  the  side  of  prose. 

In  Lanier's  poetry,  critics  have  found  his  ex 
pression  too  lyrical  for  his  thought;  that  is  why  his 
simple  song  is  sweetest.  They  have  also  felt  that  in 
poetry  he  was  most  limited  in  his  range  of  contempla 
tion.  Unlike  Tennyson,  he  was  not  brought  into 
a  definite  current  of  scientific  thought;  he  either  did 
not  have  the  opportunity,  or  his  natural  reticence 
made  him  avoid  the  occasion,  to  submit  the  large  ques 
tions  of  life  to  others  for  argument.  He  thought 
everything  out  for  himself,  drawing  his  own  lines 
of  artistic  and  moral  beauty,  yet  drawing  them  after 
close  reading  of  a  surprising  extent.  Though  song 
came  naturally,  Lanier  took  the  poet's  province  far 
from  easily;  his  verse  is  full  of  artificial  didacticism, 
which,  though  pure — in  that  the  truth  it  contained  was 
the  truth  of  his  own  belief — showed  him  ever  aware  of 
the  poet's  mission,  which  he  thus  defines  in  "The 
Bee": 

He  beareth  starry  stuff  about  his  wings 
To  pollen  thee  and  sting  thee  fertile.    .    .    . 

There  was  much  nobility  of  expression  in  Lanier, 
much  melody,  but  hardly  strength ;  there  was  too  much 
grace  and  gentle  courtesy  ever  to  be  rugged  and  primi- 


\ 


376    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

tive ;  on  the  other  hand,  he  was  often  crude  because  of 
the  ardor  with  which  theory  blinded  the  defects  of  prac 
tice.  Had  he  not  been  so  intent  on  the  music  and 
physics  of  verse,  his  workmanship  might  have  been 
more  perfect.  But  Lanier  was  dead  at  an  early  age, 
and  his  removal  only  emphasized  the  potential  develop 
ment  which  might  have  produced  a  figure  as  large 
as  Lowell,  even  if  not  as  great  a  poet  as  Keats. 
Lanier  gains  position  only  when  his  verse,  which  is 
beautiful,  liquid,  vocally  distinctive,  and  sometimes 
noble,  is  viewed  in  the  light  of  the  scholar.  His 
intellectual  aliveness  places  him  far  beyond  the  posi 
tion  of  Timrod  and  Hayne. 

In  his  book  on  "  The  English  Novel,"  Lanier  wrote 
of  Whitman's  democracy  as  having  "  no  provision  for 
rich  or  small,  or  puny,  or  plain-featured,"  and  as  rep 
resenting  "really  the  worst  kind  of  aristocracy,  being 
an  aristocracy  of  nature's  favorites  in  the  matter  of 
muscle."  This  opinion  was  uttered  from  the  depths 
of  Lanier's  gentle  nature,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  he 
did  not  shrink  from  the  situation  before  him;  he  was 
one  of  the  first  singers  against  the  cruelties  of  an  in 
dustrialism  which  was  but  then  beginning  to  grip  the 
country.  "  The  Symphony"  is  full  of  the  motive. 

Through  the  efforts  of  Bayard  Taylor,  Lanier  was 
asked  by  the  Centennial  Commission  to  write  the  poem 
which  Dudley  Buck  was  to  set  to  music,  and  which 
Theodore  Thomas'  orchestra  was  to  play.  It  was  an 
excellent  opportunity,  and  one  which  might  have  fallen 
to  the  lot  of  Edmund  Clarence  Stedman,  had  he  not 
been  in  South  America  at  the  time.  Taylor  had  large 
faith  in  Lanier's  ability,  although  correspondence  be 
tween  the  two  shows  that  he  deprecated  the  over 
emphasis  placed  by  Lanier  on  music  as  a  component 
part  of  poetry.  But  this  interchange  of  critical  com 
ment  indicates  how  far  Lanier  had  risen  above  that 
Southern  conservatism  and  sensitiveness  which  de- 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  377 

prived  Southern  letters  of  any  critical  corrective. 
Lanier  approached  the  task  in  the  spirit  of  consecra 
tion,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  he  was  musician  enough 
to  plan  for  all  difficulties  which  might  present  them 
selves  to  Buck.  One  cannot  help  but  feel  that  the 
whole  movement  of  the  cantata  was  conceived,  as  far 
as  Lanier  was  concerned,  from  the  standpoint  of 
orchestration ;  the  annotated  musical  directions  for  the 
whole  motive  somehow  forestall  his  written  desire 
that  the  completed  work  should  be  "  as  simple  and  as 
candid  as  a  melody  of  Beethoven's." 

An  occasional  piece  of  such  public  expectancy  was 
almost  certain  of  extended  criticism,  and  Lanier  found 
himself  the  center  of  an  unfavorable  storm.  As  a 
work  of  art,  the  poem  was  much  too  condensed  to 
have  a  large  appeal;  it  was  rather  an  expression 
of  Lanier's  personal  feeling  than  a  broad  measure  of 
national  patriotism.  It  was  a  poet's  poem,  but  a  poet 
of  Lanier's  temper  rather  than  of  Whitman's,  a  pic 
turesque  rather  than  a  vigorous  personification  of  a 
nation's  aspiration,  in  which  one  feels  the  careful 
valuation  of  vowel  and  consonant  sounds  for  tonal 
effects.  The  greatest  reach  in  the  poem  is  the  angel's 
prophecy,  which  is  a  simple  statement  of  Lanier's  own 
political  faith,  and  it  must  be  remembered  that  this 
was  only  a  short  while  after  the  Civil  War. 

Lanier  did  not  fail  in  his  conception  of  democracy ; 
he  simply  would  not  regard  it  grossly,  he  would  not 
accept  it  as  in  any  way  primitive,  or  as  uncouth,  like 
Whitman's  "  beast-man."  Again  turning  to  "  The 
English  Novel,"  we  find  him  answering  Whitman  in 
this  manner,  making  a  superman  without  having  read 
Nietzsche :  "  My  democrat,  the  democrat  whom  I  con 
template  with  pleasure,  the  democrat  who  is  to  write 
or  to  read  the  poetry  of  the  future,  may  have  a  mere 
thread  of  his  biceps,  yet  he  shall  be  strong  enough  to 
handle  hell  ...  his  height  shall  be  the  height 


378    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

of  great  resolution,  and  love  and  faith  and  beauty 
and  knowledge  and  subtle  meditation;  his  head  shall 
be  forever  among  the  stars."  Thus  spake  this  de 
scendant  of  Huguenots,  this  Cavalier  of  the  South, 
this  Arthur  of  the  Tennyson  Idylls,  who,  summing 
up  the  Civil  War  in  his  "  Psalm  of  the  West,"  con 
ceived  it  as  a  conflict  between  the  heart-strong  South 
and  the  head-strong  North.  This  long  poem  of  his 
is  another  illustration  of  how  much  more  modern  was 
Lanier's  mental  conception  than  his  artistic  expression. 
The  times  were  not  propitious  for  broad  thinking. 
As  Mims  excellently  indicates:  "  In  Lanier's  '  Psalm 
of  the  West'  we  have  a  Southerner  chanting  the  glory 
of  freedom,  without  any  chance  of  having  the  slavery 
of  a  race  to  make  the  boast  a  paradox." 

A  small  volume  of  Lanier's,  issued  in  1876,  bears  a 
dedication  to  Charlotte  Cushman ;  their  friendship  had 
begun  through  her  admiration  for  "  Corn,"  and  their 
sympathy  was  further  cemented  through  a  similar  de 
votion  to  art  and  a  similar  dread  disease.  With  his 
unusual  warmth,  Lanier  reveled  in  her  friendship,  and 
his  letters  show  his  depth  of  admiration,  and  the  naive 
manner  in  which  he  took  his  friends  into  his  confi 
dence.  Miss  Cushman's  companion  and  biographer, 
Miss  Stebbins,  was  likewise  one  of  his  correspondents, 
and  through  her  brother,  who  was  on  the  board  of 
trustees  of  the  New  York  College  of  Music,  Lanier 
once  hoped  for  an  appointment  as  Professor  of  the 
Physics  of  Music. 

Already,  in  the  summer  of  1875,  his  work  was  inter 
rupted  by  hemorrhages,  but  his  constitution  was  suffi 
ciently  strong  for  him  to  be  able  to  go  to  Boston  in 
the  fall,  where  he  visited  Miss  Cushman,  and  met 
Lowell  and  Longfellow.  That  trip  North  meant  much 
to  Lanier,  holding  for  him  further  evidences  of  Tay 
lor's  friendship,  and  creating  for  him  pleasant  memo 
ries  of  hours  spent  at  the  Century  Club.  A  series  of 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  379 

unfortunate  circumstances  deprived  him  of  the  task 
of  becoming  Miss  Cushman's  biographer  at  the  time 
of  her  death  in  1876,  but  he  himself  was  snatched 
from  death  soon  after,  by  hasty  retreat  to  Florida, 
from  which  place  he  wrote  in  a  characteristically 
cheerful  vein  to  his  friends,  especially  Taylor.  To 
the  latter  he  was  picturesque  in  wording,  and  acute  in 
understanding;  spontaneous  glimpses  of  his  own  true 
worth  are  to  be  had  in  these  letters,  for  example,  when 
he  confessed  that  he  was  never  able  to  stay  angry 
in  his  life.  His  excellence  as  a  writer  for  children  is 
partly  explained  by  such  a  passage  as  this,  descriptive 
of  his  family :  "  Nothing  could  be  more  keen,  more 
fresh  .  .  .  than  the  meeting  together  of  their 
little  immense  loves  with  the  juicy  selfishness  and  hon 
est  animalisms  of  the  dear  young  cubs." 

Thus,  by  1877,  Lanier  was  fairly  established  as  a 
poet — earnest,  modest,  ambitions,  self-critical,  and  ex 
acting.  But  though  his  work  was  sufficient  to  eke  out 
a  small  livelihood,  he  was  still  anxious  for  some  fixed 
work,  such  as  a  professorship,  a  librarianship,  or  even 
a  governmental  post  at  Washington.  His  health  was 
so  very  poor  that  friends  tried  to  have  him  appointed 
to  a  consulship  in  the  south  of  France,  but  to  no  avail. 
Here  was  a  period  which  Lanier's  biographer  rightly 
emphasized  as  the  lowest  ebb  in  his  career.  But  noth 
ing  daunted  him,  and  so  the  poet  moved  with  his  fam 
ily  to  Baltimore  in  the  fall  of  1877,  where  he  was 
better  able  to  perfect  himself  in  Old  and  Middle  Eng 
lish  literature,  using  the  Peabody  Library.  This  ref 
erence  collection  in  a  way  was  a  forerunner  of  Johns 
Hopkins  University  (founded  in  1876),  and  thus 
Lanier  represented  the  first  flower  of  its  culture.  As 
a  student,  he  was  insatiable  and  untiring,  perfectly 
content  to  let  the  world  slip  by,  with  alternate  devo 
tion  to  his  flute  and  to  his  books. 

He  was  not  a    student  in   any   niggardly   fashion; 


380    TPIE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

it  was  characteristic  of  Lanier  that  what  he  imbibed 
had  to  be  shared  with  others ;  that  is  why  he  gave 
private  lectures  on  Elizabethan  poetry,  and  then,  in 
the  fall  of  1878,  he  began  his  Shakespeare  lectures  to 
women  at  the  Peabody  Institute,  which  are  now  avail 
able  in  the  sumptuous  volumes,  "  Shakspere  and  His 
Forerunners."  Lanier's  generosity  of  spirit  made 
him  a  prophet;  intent  always  on  sharing,  he  outlined 
to  his  friend,  Gibson  Peacock,  a  system  of  lectures 
for  all  the  large  cities  of  the-  Union  which,  thus  early, 
foreshadowed  the  public  lectures  now  so  widely  given, 
and  the  university  extension  work  which  bids  fair  in 
the  North  to  have  such  excellent  results. 

In  his  scheme,  which  was  fully  outlined,  Lanier 
was  catholic  in  his  interest ;  he  did  not  sacrifice  science 
or  art  in  his  devotion  to  literature.  But  in  his  Shake 
speare  course  his  plan  was  to  have  others  give  separate 
lectures  on  topics  of  closely  connected  interests.  Col. 
Richard  Malcolm  Johnston,  for  instance,  was  to  have 
discussed  Early  English  Comedy. 

The  outcome  of  this  extensive  scheme  was  Lanier's 
own  individual  lectures,  and  as  we  have  said,  these 
form  the  substance  for  his  "  Shakspere  and  His 
Forerunners."  Had  the  poet  been  alive  when  these 
volumes  \vere  published,  he  would  have  pruned  from 
them  all  that  colloquial  familiarity  and  that  feminine 
condescension  which  mar  the  complete  effectiveness 
of  his  scholarship.  In  reading  these  lectures,  one 
should  bear  in  mind  the  lack  of  editorial  supervision, 
which,  while  detracting  from  the  effectiveness  of  the 
style,  does  not  in  any  way  deprive  the  book  of  its 
intrinsic  value  and  of  its  personal  significance. 

"  Shakspere  and  His  Forerunners  "  is  an  excellent 
example  of  Lanier's  faithfulness  as  a  student,  of  the 
ease  with  which  he  absorbed  the  atmosphere  of  old 
material,  made  still  more  easy  by  an  enthusiasm  which 
often  spoiled  his  perspective  and  his  proportion.  He 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  381 

was  clearly  a  sympathetic  reader  of  romance  lore,  the 
weak  spot  in  his  critical  armor  being  his  responsive 
heart.  One  must  not  estimate  him  rigorously,  how 
ever,  for  it  must  be  remembered  that  he  strove  to  be 
popular,  and  by  their  very  nature  Anglo-Saxon  and 
phonetics  are  not  generally  studied.  Lanier  skillfully 
mingled  human  color  with  artistic  judgment,  and  his 
audiences  must  have  sat  surprised  by  the  ease  with 
which  he  approached  topics  difficult  of  explanation. 
His  range  of  comparative  literature  was  not  unlike 
Lowell's,  though  he  did  not  possess  the  systematized 
scholarship  of  the  latter;  but  what  he  did  have  was 
charm  and  personal  magnetism,  and  the  gift  of  com 
municating  enthusiasm. 

In  their  incipiency,  we  find  here  the  beginning  of 
his  "  Science  of  English  Verse,"  his  treatise  on  "  The 
English  Novel,"  and  scattered  throughout  the  pages 
varied  tastes,  which  stamp  the  man  rather  than  the 
student.  His  reading  was  of  wide  extent  and  his 
preparation  deep;  had  the  book  been  subjected  to  his 
own  final  supervision,  we  might  have  had  in  these 
volumes  a  popular  treatment,  scientifically,  philologic- 
ally,  and  comparatively  as  interesting  as  Huxley's 
treatment  of  Darwin.  Lanier's  point  of  view  was 
somewhat  the  reverse  of  the  extreme  scholar,  who 
only  weighs  evidence  and  has  no  constructive  imagina 
tion.  In  his  introduction,  he  claimed  that  instead  of 
editing  an  old  author  because  he  loved  him,  he  grew 
to  love  the  old  author  because  he  had  edited  him ;  al 
ways  the  heart  dominated  over  the  head  with  Lanier. 

The  success  of  his  attempt  at  the  Peabody  Institute 
led  to  his  appointment  as  Lecturer  in  English  Liter 
ature  at  the  Johns  Hopkins  University,  whose  head, 
President  Gilman,  was  the  poet's  close  friend  and  a 
firm  believer  in  his  future.  As  early  as  1876,  there 
was  an  effort  made  to  connect  Lanier  with  the  univer 
sity,  but  it  was  not  till  February,  1879,  that  he  was 


382     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

finally  installed  as  a  member  of  the  faculty  which  was 
striving  in  pioneer  spirit  to  establish  a  system  of  grad 
uate  research,  unknown  in  the  American  college. 

Once  appointed,  Lanier  threw  himself  heart  and  soul 
into  the  work.  The  university  attracted  to  it  the 
cream  of  the  country's  and  England's  scholarship — 
Kelvin,  Bryce,  Lowell,  Child,  Norton,  and  others. 
Lanier  availed  himself  of  his  associations;  the  Greek 
professor,  Gildersleeve,  was  consulted  during  the  prep 
aration  of  the  "  Science  of  English  Verse,"  and  even 
his  Anglo-Saxon  knowledge  was  put  to  the  test  of  out 
side  scrutiny.  This  at  once  shows  Lanier's  modesty 
and  his  care,  as  well  as  his  personal  relations  with 
scholars  whose  services  he  could  thus  claim.  Lanier 
was  not  only  the  appreciator,  but  the  original  research 
worker. 

This  originality  resulted  in  his  proposing  scheme 
after  scheme  which,  while  not  at  the  moment  practica 
ble,  were  clear  indications  of  Lanier's  significant  view 
of  the  future  of  university  work,  wherein,  let  it  be 
noted  as  of  prime  importance,  his  efforts  were  to  keep 
English  literature  from  that  isolation  into  which  un 
fortunately  it  has  at  present  fallen.  This  position  of 
his  was  taken  thirty  years  ago! 

Let  us  examine  a  few  dates  to  show  the  untiring 
energy  of  this  frail  singer  of  the  South.  When  his 
life  was  almost  at  its  ebb,  he  put  his  shoulder  to  the 
task  with  gentle  bravery  and  with  the  Crusader's  for 
titude.  In  1878,  he  produced  "  The  Boy's  Froissart  " ; 
in  1880,  "The  Boy's  King  Arthur";  in  1881,  "The 
Boy's  Mabinogion  " ;  while  "  The  Boy's  Percy  "  came 
posthumously  in  1882.  The  "  Science  of  English 
Verse"  appeared  in  1880,  and  his  lectures  on  "The 
English  Novel  "  (published  in  1883)  were  delivered  in 
the  midst  of  the  final  ravages  of  consumption.  Even 
in  June,  1881,  from  his  camp  in  North  Carolina,  where 
he  had  done  his  last  writing,  where  he  had  sung  his 
last  song,  where  he  had  for  the  last  time  touched  the 


CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD  383 

piano,  his  interest  for  the  last  time  became  roused  in 
science,  concerning  some  meteorological  observations. 
Thus  active  to  the  end,  with  father,  wife,  and  brother 
by  his  side,  Lanier  breathed  his  last  on  September  7, 
1881. 

There  has  been  no  attempt  at  an  adequate  estimate 
in  such  limited  space  as  this.  Little  more  is  required 
of  us  than  to  emphasize  in  other  channels  what  we  have 
already  claimed  for  Lanier's  general  scholarship, — 
his  modernness.  He  was  more  successful  as  a  scien 
tific  investigator  than  as  a  psychologist;  this  will  be 
seen  by  close  consideration  of  the  "  Science  of  Eng 
lish  Verse,"  which  deals  with  fundamental  ideas,  and 
of  "  The  English  Novel,"  which  is  less  unified  be 
cause  appreciation  can  never  be  exact.  For  perspec 
tive  has  changed  rapidly  in  the  development  of 
fiction  from  the  day  of  Augusta  Evans  to  the  day  of 
Edith  Wharton.  Lanier  was  on  the  threshold,  so  to 
speak,  looking  over  into  a  new  and  more  progressive 
era.  He  died  just  as  the  generation  of  Southern 
writers  known  to  us  to-day  began  to  rise  into  promi 
nence, — men  like  Cable,  Thompson,  and  Harris,  whose 
Uncle  Remus  Lanier  recognized  as  "  fiction  founded 
upon  fact  and  so  like  it  as  to  have  passed  into  true 
citizenship  and  authority,  along  with  Bottom  and  Au- 
tolycus."  (His  mind  was  fertile,  and  also  pregnant — 
as  the  New  South  was  pregnant.  For  this  reason,  he 
occupies  a  justly  important  position  in  American  let 
ters  ;  he  was  not  lavishly  brilliant,  but  he  was  soundly 
earnest,  and  his  moral  force  was  rare.  As  a  product 
of  Southern  life  he  is  no  exception,  even  though  his 
progressive  views,  his  artistic  bravery,  and  his  concern 
for  industrial  adjustment  placed  him  in  ranks  which 
were  by  no  means  thin,  even  though  the  South  showed 
an  indifference  to  progress.  It  is  this  alive-ness  which 
separates  Lanier  from  Hayne  and  Timrod,  and  which 
places  him  as  the  first  singer  of  the  New  South,  while 
they  stand  representative  of  the  old  regime. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

THE  SOUTHERN   SCHOOL  OF  POETRY 
II.     HAYNE,  TIMROD,  TICKNOR,  AND  MRS.  PRESTON 

IT  would  have  been  impossible  for  Paul  Hamilton 
Hayne  to  have  written  significantly  of  the  New  South, 
inasmuch  as  his  whole  nature  was  wrought  of  the 
fabric  which  the  Civil  War  destroyed.  Strange  to 
say,  he  saw  the  literary  weakness  of  his  section,  and 
was  not  slow  in  denouncing  an  individual  vanity  which 
prohibited  the  critical  spirit ;  but  his  personal  interests 
were  aloof  from  the  world's  advance;  the  scientific 
view  was  beyond  his  ken;  the  social  awakening  left 
him  more  than  ever  in  isolation. 

Chronology  is  an  arbitrary  way  of  developing  liter 
ary  history ;  such  a  treatment  would  necessitate  a  con 
sideration  of  Mrs.  Preston  (18201897),  Dr.  Ticknor 
(1822-1874),  Timrod  (1829-1867),  Hayne  (1830- 
1886),  and  Lanier  (1842-1881),  in  the  order  named. 
But  the  forceful  meaning  of  this  only  school  of  South 
ern  poetry  lies  in  contrast  rather  than  in  order,  a 
contrast  all  the  more  remarkable  since  contact,  similar 
sectional  devotion,  and  chivalrous  correspondence — re 
vealing  a  like  consecration  to  art, — resulted  in  such 
dissimilar  attitudes  toward  shifting  conditions. 

In  the  technical  interest  of  verse,  we  find  Hayne 
content  to  follow  the  natural  rhythm  of  his  being, 
which  prompted  him  to  literature  and  away  from  law. 
Lanier  and  Timrod  were  concerned  with  poetic  form, 
the  one  more  scientific  than  the  other;  and  Timrod  far 
less  hampered  than  Lanier  by  an  enthusiasm  for  an- 

384 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  385 

tique  expression.  The  spectrum  of  change  from  the 
Old  South  to  the  New  leads  from  Hayne,  through 
Timrod  to  Lanier.  In  a  sonnet  "To  Alexander  H. 
Stephens,"  Hayne's  expression  is  reminiscent,  sound 
ing  the  sad  note  of  regret  over  the  passing  of  a  "stal 
wart  time "  and  "  a  worthier  day."  Poverty  very 
largely  cut  him  aloof  from  those  advantages  which 
were  denied  the  South,  but  it  was  Hayne's  cast  of 
mind  which  determined  his  poetry — a  cast  of  mind 
influenced  on  one  hand  by  his  relationship  with  Robert 
Y.  Hayne,  and  on  the  other  by  his  intimacy  with 
Simms.  Perhaps  Lanier  would  have  faced  the  past 
also,  rather  than  the  future,  had  he  not  met  the  scien 
tific  spirit  in  the  denominational  atmosphere  of  Ogle- 
thorpe  College. 

Therefore,  when  Hayne  sings  of  the  active  world, 
he  does  so  as  one  who  has  dreamed  of  it  far  off;  he 
speaks  of  the  "mart"  and  of  "trade"  in  the  conven 
tional  manner  of  the  lyrist  who  has  never  felt  the 
tenseness  of  either.  But  Lanier's  "  The  Symphony," 
even  though  somewhat  overcrowded  with  strangely 
hyphenated  terms,  and  over-insistent  in  its  philosophy 
of  chivalric  love,  is  nevertheless  tempered  by  the 
industrial  impulse  threatening  the  South — threatening, 
since  it  might  either  be  a  blessing  or  a  blight.  Hayne 
viewed  the  South  with  infinite  love,  but  not  with  the 
understanding  of  Lanier.  The  latter,  searching  in  his 
observation  and  quick  in  his  kindly  humor,  saw  the 
economics  of  the  land  as  well  as  the  beauty  of  environ 
ment;  otherwise  he  could  never  have  conceived 
"Thar's  more  in  the  Man  than  thar  is  in  the  Land," 
nor  in  "  Jones's  Private  Argyment "  could  he  have 
written  such  stanzas  as : 

He'd  swear  with  a  hundred  sighs  and  groans, 
That  farmers  must  stop  gittin'   loans, 
And  git  along  without  'em; 


386    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

That  bankers,  warehousemen,  and  sich 

Was  fatt'nin'  on  the  planter, 
And  Tennessy  was  rotten-rich 
A-raisin'  meat  and  corn,  all  which 

Draw'd  money  to  Atlanta: 

And  the  only  thing  (says  Jones)  to  do 

Is,  eat  no  meat  that's  boughten  : 
But  tear  up  every  I  O    U, 
And  plant  all  corn  and  swear  for  true 

To  quit  a-raisin'  cotton! 

We  shall  look  in  vain  for  such  expressions  from 
Hayne;  in  fact,  he  was  emphatically  a  poet  of  the  Old 
South,  with  all  the  beauty,  grace,  and  courtesy  of  the 
old  civilization.  His  life,  not  quite  as  tragic  as  Tim- 
rod's,  was  one  of  wide  contrast.  Born  in  luxury,  he 
died  in  poverty;  born  just  before  slavery  became  an 
issue,  he  passed  through  the  social  life  of  Charleston 
under  the  domination  of  Simms,  Crafts,  and  Legare; 
actively  concerned  in  journalism,  his  health  would  not 
admit  of  undue  exertion.  Even  when  the  war  came, 
he  was  unable  to  enter  active  service,  and  had  to  resign 
his  duties  on  the  staff  of  Governor  Pickens.  Events 
gave  him  every  provocation  to  become  bitter  and  even 
vindictive  in  his  war  verse,  but  there  was  naught  in  him 
of  the  fire  of  Timrod,  of  that  defiance  which  was  flung 
in  the  face  of  the  despot  and  which  rings  through  such 
a  martial  lyric  as  "  Carolina."  In  him  there  dwelt, 
throughout  the  verses  written  between  1861  and  1865, 
a  quiet,  burning  ardor,  such  as  moved  the  knights  of 
Arthur's  deathless  age.  His  songs  speak  lovingly  of 
valor,  of  Southern  rights,  of  indomitable  pride.  The 
war  left  him  weary,  but  not  bitter;  he  understood  the 
poignancy  of  Grady's  reference  to  Sherman's  care 
lessness  with  fire,  for  in  the  trail  of  that  march  to 
the  sea,  Hayne  was  left  shattered  in  health,  without 
money,  and  with  a  smoldering  mass  of  debris  to  re- 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  387 

mind  him  of  his  home,  containing  an  invaluable  col 
lection  of  books.  Timrod  succumbed  to  defeat,  but 
Hayne  lived  on  through  the  poverty  of  "  Copse  Hill," 
near  Augusta,  Ga.,  with  a  strong  moral  bravery  that 
rose  above  despair. 

The  life  of  struggle  with  daily  conditions  is  one  of 
limitation ;  it  lacks  event.  But  Hayne's  poetry  affords 
no  marked  indication  of  that  poverty  which  might 
have  embittered  much  stronger  men  than  he.  If  his 
aloofness  among  the  pine  barrens  indicates  anything, 
it  is  that  in  his  quiescence  he  showed  his  heritage  from 
the  past — his  inability  to  labor.  I  have  before  me  a 
clipping  from  the  Charleston  Daily  News  of  1871 — 
Hayne's  sonnet  on  "  Carolina/'  beginning  "  The  fair 
young  land  which  gave  me  birth  is  dead."  Subjoined 
is  a  reply  from  a  Montgomery  journalist,  with  the 
closing  lines : 

Fill  not  the  land  with  nerveless,  girl-like  sobs; 
But  work  as  our  sires  worked  in  days  of  yore. 

Work,  indeed,  was  the  remedy,  but  Hayne  could  not 
see  it  as  Lanier  did ;  his  legends  and  lyrics  and  poems 
are  full  to  overflowing  with  a  devotion  to  nature,  as 
sincere  as  the  ministrations  of  Bryant  and  Words 
worth,  but  not  quite  so  personal  nor  so  tinctured  with 
moral  consciousness  or  with  a  philosophical  point  of 
view;  there  was  never  any  significant  questioning  of 
his  faith,  nor  yet  an  effort  to  do  battle  by  other  means 
than  poetry. 

Hayne  stood  in  direct  opposition  to  the  rest  of  his 
family  in  the  development  of  his  taste;  they  were 
actively  engaged  in  public  affairs,  giving  utterance  to 
political  opinion  in  the  senate  chamber;  he  did  not  in 
herit  his  father's  profession  as  lieutenant  in  the  navy, 
nor  his  uncle's  powers  of  oratory,  though  at  school  he 
was  given  prizes  for  elocution.  His  education,  as 


388    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

well  as  the  Charleston  society  of  1850,  molded  him 
for  other  walks,  and  it  may  be  rightly  claimed  that  he 
graduated  into  literature  through  the  Southern  Liter 
ary  Messenger  and  the  Charleston  Evening  News. 
Calhoun  still  usurped  the  political  horizon,  and  his 
nearness  at  Fort  Hill  may  have  spurred  the  young 
poet  in  his  law  studies  for  a  while.  But  within  the 
city  itself,  ruled  by  its  false  social  lines,  which  none  the 
less  had  to  be  reckoned  with,  Simms  drew  to  him  the 
coterie  which  has  already  been  mentioned,  and  from 
which  Hayne  seems  to  have  profited  not  a  little.  Just 
after  forsaking  the  law,  he  entered  journalism,  serv 
ing  the  usual  Southern  apprenticeship  in  ventures  that 
barely  survived  their  launching,  such  as  the  Southern 
Literary  Gazette  and  the  Washington  Spectator. 

An  excellent  glimpse  of  Hayne's  share  in  the  liter 
ary  activity  of  ante-bellum  Charleston  is  included  by 
Trent  in  his  life  of  Simms.  It  is  surprising  the  num 
ber  of  serious  efforts  made  in  a  provincial  manner 
throughout  the  small  towns  of  the  South  to  cultivate 
literary  interest.  No  doubt,  Simms  monopolized  the 
conversation  amidst  his  group  of  devotees,  but  Hayne 
nevertheless  asserted  himself  in  the  correspondence 
which  he  carried  on  with  the  Carolina  autocrat. 
Richard  Michel,  afterwards  a  physician  of  Montgom 
ery,  was  one  of  the  group,  and  his  sister,  Mary  Mid- 
delton  Michel,  became  the  wife  of  the  struggling  poet 
in  1852 — struggling  at  the  moment  for  position  rather 
than  for  subsistence. 

Professor  Trent  pictures  Russell's  book-shop  in 
Charleston,  where  the  intellectual  would  often  gather 
of  an  afternoon,  and  where,  in  April,  1857,  Russell's 
Magazine  was  launched,  for  a  three  years'  career,  with 
Hayne  as  editor,  during  which  time  loyalty  to  the 
South,  to  Simms,  and  to  art,  exacted  the  ingenuity  of 
Hayne  as  well  as  his  partisan  spirit.  A  man  of 


PAUL    HAMILTON     HAYNE. 


CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD  389 

Simms'  physique  might  be  misleading;  he  was  much 
more  the  sentimentalist  than  Cooper,  and  it  was  the 
feminine  streak  in  him  which  found  such  response 
with  Hayne.  Simms,  the  poet,  was  much  more  to  his 
liking  than  Simms,  the  romancer,  and  the  younger 
men  looked  to  Simms  for  encouragement,  which  was 
freely  given  and  sincerely  meant. 

During  these  early  years,  Hayne  was  not  inactive; 
his  verses,  scattered  here  and  there  in  various  journals, 
were  gathered  together  in  1855,  1857,  an^  I&59>  and 
through  these  three  volumes  he  gained  the  attention 
of  the  Northern  poets.  All  was  on  the  way  toward 
prosperous  recognition ;  his  home  became  a  center  of 
attraction,  and  he  dedicated  his  whole  being  to  his 
art.  In  " The  Will  and  the  Wing."  he  would  rather 

.     .     in  the  outward  state 
Of  Song's  immortal  temple  lay  me  down, 
A  beggar  basking  by  that  radiant  gate, 
Than  bend  beneath  the  haughtiest  empire's  crown ! 

His  youthful  effusions  gave  every  evidence  of  his 
maturer  qualities, — the  passion  for  the  poet's  calling, 
the  thirst  for  natural  beauty,  the  spirit  of  brooding 
peace,  the  reminiscent  note,  the  mystic  strain — where 
life  is  permeated  with  presentiment,  where  gayety  is 
tempered  by  a  certain  isolation  in  joy, — and  the  chival- 
ric  pose  that  is  reflective  of  old  Southern  ideals.  But 
even  though,  thus  early,  we  note  the  extensive  use  of 
personification  and  of  classic  mythology,  there  is  an 
absence  of  the  highest  imaginative  quality.  He  lacked 
compression,  a  fault  which  was  to  grow  beyond 
correction — a  compression  which  gave  Timrod  supe 
rior  advantage  over  him.  He  lacked  clear  conceptions 
of  the  philosophy  of  life,  falling  thus  at  times  into 
an  incoherence  akin  to  Lanier.  We  are  reminded  of 
the  latter  in  reading  Hayne's  "Ode,  delivered  on  the 


390    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

First  Anniversary  of  the  Carolina  Art  Association, 
February  10,  1856,"  where  his  enthusiasms  are  ex 
pressed  in  lines  descriptive  of  "  a  tide  of  all  the  mighty 
masters,  loved,  adored."  Thus  also  sang  Lanier,  in 
'  The  Crystal/'  in  the  excess  of  his  devotion  to  art. 
But  neither  one  contained  the  incisive  phrasing,  the 
excellent  technique,  of  Tennyson's  "  The  Palace  of 
Art."  Nevertheless,  as  his  sensitiveness  to  outward 
beauty  became  more  acute,  Hayne's  exquisite  sensuous 
response  to  Nature  grew  to  be  not  unlike  Tennyson's. 
It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  at  this  time  the  English 
poet  was  holding  wide  attention ;  in  a  way,  the  public 
waited  expectantly  for  something  new  from  his  pen,  as 
they  had  earlier  been  led  to  expect  installments  of 
stories  by  Dickens  and  Thackeray.  In  the  corre 
spondence  between  Hayne  and  Mrs.  Preston,  there 
are  flashes  of  this  Tennyson  influence;  and  a  curious 
instance  of  that  crystal  perception  of  beauty,  which 
was  based  on  feeling,  coupled  with  the  poetry  of  com 
mon  existence,  is  to  be  noted  in  Mrs.  Preston's  com 
ment  on  "  Gareth  and  Lynette  " :  "  Just  a  faint  streak 
of  cloudiness,  such  as  I  saw  when  decanting  my  wine 
the  other  day,  warning  me  to  stop,  for  I  was  approach 
ing  the  dregs." 

Hayne  was  not  a  militant  poet;  even  in  the  turbu 
lent  aspects  of  Nature  he  felt  "  a  fathomless  calm 
serene,"  and  the  serenity  of  his  conception  of  "The 
Village  Beauty  "  is  purposely  removed  from  the  wear 
and  tear  of  "  the  keen-edged  world."  These  poets  of 
the  South  had  the  flavor  of  the  Elizabethan  lyrists; 
they  reflected  at  times  the  graces  and  formality  of 
Lovelace  and  Collins,  but  they  likewise  revealed  a 
quick  appreciation  of  the  Victorian  attitude,  set  in  nat 
ural  channels  by  Wordsworth.  In  Hayne's  verse, 
however,  there  was  not  evident  any  keen  ability  to 
transform  the  commonplace  by  means  of  Words 
worth's  associative  art.  The  bard  of  Grasmere  was 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  391 

aloof,  but  not  repressed;  he  was  in  an  atmosphere  of 
ferment  and  of  changing  mental  standards.  There 
were  hardly  what  one  might  call  standards  in  the 
South ;  while  the  change  was  to  be  later. 

A  man  in  narrow  circumstances,  mental  or  material, 
draws  liberally  on  himself;  wherever  Hayne's  friend 
ship  lay,  there  he  offered  up  a  verse.  Note  the  sailor- 
vision  of  "My  Father"  among  "  Juvenalia  " ;  the 
feeling  sentiments  to  "My  Mother,"  which  indicate 
a  certain  lamentable  opposition  on  the  part  of  the 
Haynes  to  their  boy, — scion  of  a  legal  house, — follow 
ing  in  dalliance  the  trivial  path  of  art.  "  Thou  didst 
not  taunt  my  fledgeling  song,"  he  cries  to  the  loved 
and  pale  face  of  memory.  In  an  occasional  poem,  dedi 
cated  to  Simms,  and  read  on  December  13,  1877,  we 
find,  in  the  midst  of  one  of  those  long,  rambling 
speeches  in  rhyme  not  uncommon  among  Southern 
po-ets,  a  sketch  of  the  Charleston  group  of  favored 
followers.  The  poem  is  not  without  vividness,  and 
contains  some  sharp,  picturesque  distinctions;  but  it 
is  rambling  after  the  usual  fashion. 

Let  us  glance  through  some  of  the  autobfographic 
tokens  of  his  art;  it  is  enough  to  know  that  probably 
through  the  agency  of  Ticknor  &  Fields,  Hayne  was 
brought  to  the  notice  of  Bryant,  Longfellow,  and 
Holmes,  and  that  after  a  long  struggle  with  poverty 
on  Copse  Hill,  he  went  North  in  1879,  visiting  the  im 
portant  literary  men  and  returning  home  to  bind  to 
gether  his  verse  tributes  to  Emerson,  Whittier,  Long 
fellow,  Stoddard,  Stedman,  Boker,  Fawcett,  and  Tay 
lor,  toward  whom  he  was  particularly  drawn. 

Not  being  a  man  of  action,  Hayne's  life  was  marked 
by  very  few  variations ;  in  his  song,  he  celebrated 
the  making  of  friends;  in  his  scant  home,  which  be 
came  a  palace  to  accord  with  his  manner,  he  welcomed 
his  friends  regally;  in  the  generosity  of  his  spirit  he 
tried  to  further  the  art  of  his  confreres.  Such  desire 


392     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

prompted  him,  in  1872,  to  edit  an  edition  of  Timrod's 
poems  (Hale  &  Son),  symbolizing  rare  friendship; 
and,  in  1879,  he  introduced  the  sweet  and  native  song 
of  Ticknor. 

We  must  remember  that  such  commonplace  beauties 
of  character  bring  the  spirit  to  a  rare  height  of  devel 
opment,  without  greatly  stirring  the  mind;  if  the 
intellect  is  moved,  the  result  in  sucfi  a  nature  as 
Hayne's  would  be  yearning.  That  is  why  he  some 
times  lost  hold  and  broke  forth  in  just,  if  unthinking, 
protestation  against  the  ignorant  disregard  of  letters 
by  the  Southern  people.  This  tone  crept  into  a  dia 
tribe  which  was  once  made  public  in  the  Northern 
press,  and  occasioned  some  ill-feeling  on  the  part  of 
Hayne's  countrymen.  No  fair  critic  could  doubt  the 
poet's  zealous  concern  for  the  honor  of  his  section, 
or  his  interest  in  its  future  welfare.  The  monotony 
of  Copse  Hill,  and  the  unabating  anxiety,  only 
made  more  apparent  the  lack  of  a  reading  public 
upon  whom  in  part  his  support  depended.  It  was 
true  that  the  South  did  not  regard  with  favor  the  man 
of  literary  taste;  it  is  true  that  those  who  hoped  for 
subsistence  by  the  pen  had  to  turn  to  the  North. 
But  Hayne's  despairing  cry  only  brought  forth  his 
own  weakness — the  inability  to  labor  for  a  livelihood, 
in  lines  against  his  taste;  the  lack  of  training  such  as 
comes  through  the  routine  necessity  of  taking  pains. 
He  raised  a  cry  in  the  wilderness  of  letters,  and  the 
South  at  the  moment  was  too  sensitive  to  listen,  too 
unwilling  to  separate  the  truth  from  an  excess  of 
personal  feeling.  He  wrote :  "  I  trust  that  few  sur 
pass  me  in  rational  patriotism,  &  a  love  for  my  own 
unfortunate  Section,  yet  the  truth  must  be  confessed, 
a  more  uncultivated,  soulless,  and  groveling  set  of 
Yahoos  (so  far  as  letters,  poetry  especially,  are  con 
cerned)  never  cumbered  the  Earth,  than  these  same 
people  of  what  is  called  the  earnest  Tropical  &  pas- 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  393 

sionate  South!!  If  I  write  with  bitterness,  God 
knows  I  have  good  reason  for  being  spleenful." 

Usually,  Hayne's  judgments  were  carefully  worded, 
but  no  one  weighs  exactly  when  bread  is  wanting; 
the  poet's  art  soul  was  hungering.  His  strictures 
against  the  literature  of  the  South,  printed  in  the 
Southern  Magazine  for  June,  1874,  showed  critical 
acumen  far  outside  the  circle  of  Southern  acceptance. 
Few  could  see  how  true  it  was  that  the  worst  enemies 
to  the  intellectual  South  were  those  whose  fulsome 
praise  destroyed  advancement,  exhibiting  thereby 
no  cultural  experience.  Such  criticism  covered  up 
where  it  should  have  exposed ;  and  certainly  Hayne's 
questioning  was  sound.  "  Can  the  foundations  of  an 
enduring  literature  be  laid  in  the  quagmires  of  indi 
vidual  vanity?  Can  a  people's  mental  dignity  and 
aesthetic  culture  be  vindicated  by  petting  incompetency, 
and  patting  ignorance  and  self-sufficiency  on  the 
back?" 

It  was  in  1866  that  Hayne  and  his  wife  moved  in 
the  vicinity  of  Grovetown,  the  poet's  health  broken, 
his  worldly  goods  scant  and  meager.  For  twenty  years 
he  was  thus  to  exist,  sustained  largely  by  a  womanly 
devotion,  so  fitly  and  gracefully  recorded  in  "  The 
Bonny  Brown  Hand."  The  cottage  at  Copse  Hill  was 
prepossessing  because  of  the  personalities  within. 
After  a  walk  of  a  half-mile  from  the  Georgia  railroad, 
the  traveler  was  greeted  with  the  courtesy  of  a  past 
age,  which  was,  as  Maurice  Thompson  felt  it  to  be, 
when  he  visited  Hayne  in  1881,  "magnetically  profuse 
with  gracious  welcome." 

The  dwelling  was  rude,  with  boards  insecurely 
joined,  such  "as  one  sees  occupied  by  the  trackmen's 
families  along  any  railroad  " ;  here,  seated  at  a  desk 
which  had  once  served  as  a  carpenter's  workbench, 
Hayne  followed  his  craft.  Thompson's  reminiscence 
of  his  visit  sounds  the  note  of  regret  that  so  much 


394     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

beauty  of  natural  expression  should  have  been  wasted 
in  such  an  arid  spot;  he  regarded  Hayne  as  the  best 
possible  example  of  art  that  could  exist  under  the 
blighting-  Affects  of  slavery,  but  he  deplored  his  friend's 
inability  to  realize  the  true  cause  for  the  literary  back 
wardness  of  the  section.  Yet,  no  one  in  the  pres 
ence  of  Hayne  could  fail  to  recognize  his  deep  devo 
tion  to  art,  however  untutored.  He  was  an  excellent 
talker,  with  a  fund  of  anecdote  that  smacked  of  the 
country.  Reminding  Thompson  somewhat  of  Robert 
Louis  Stevenson,  Hayne  likewise  symbolized  to  him 
the  past,  which  was  peculiar  and  distinctive  of  a  slave 
civilization ;  already  one  could  detect  how  much  of  a 
stranger  Hayne  would  be  with  the  advent  of  a  New 
South,  and  Thompson  wrote:  "In  parting  with 
Hayne  at  the  end  of  my  visit,  the  feeling  came  that 
here  was  the  close  of  an  era." 

The  home-spirit  took  the  place  of  large  activity  to 
Hayne ;  we  know  that  in  "  The  Cottage  on  the  Hill," — 
a  sonnet  saturated  with  feeling.  He  could  draw  from 
any  surroundings  enough  beauty  to  give  momentary 
satisfaction  to  his  craving — the  aspect  of  pines,  the 
phases  of  woodland,  the  windless  rains,  even  sunset 
on  the  pine  barrens ;  in  such  subjects  one  recognizes 
a  greater  originality  of  treatment  than  of  inward 
vision.  Hayne,  as  a  Southerner,  is  all  the  more  re 
markable  for  the  manner  in  which  he  avoided  imita 
tion. 

The  eruption  of  war  had  hurled  him  on  this  spot, 
so  Hayne  claimed,  and  after  a  fashion  he  made  it  a 
shrine.  On  its  rough  timber,  Thompson  detected  pen 
ciled  initials  of  Timrod  and  Simms;  no  poet,  whether 
Shelley  in  "  Adonais,"  or  Tennyson  in  "  In  Memo- 
riam,"  could  utter  deeper  threnodies  than  "Under  the 
Pine,"  to  the  memory  of  Timrod,  or  the  lines  penned 
by  Timrod's  grave,  or  "  The  Pole  of  Death,"  dedicated 
to  Lanier. 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD  395 

As  a  memorial  poet,  Hayne  fell  back  on  his  full 
developed  belief;  the  power  of  mind,  the  might  of 
nations  were  as  naught  before  the  will  of  God.  Death 
to  him  resulted  in  pure  lyric  grief,  in  resignation,  but 
in  no  passionate  disbelief.  If  he  cried,  as  in  the 
case  of  Dean  Stanley,  "  Yet,  by  Christ's  blood,  I  know 
he  is  not  dead ! "  it  was  to  proclaim  the  spirit  above 
the  body.  But  in  these  verses  he  did  not  let  his  mind 
linger  on  what  the  world's  messages  might  be;  it  was 
enough  for  him  that  great  souls,  by  death,  were  "  made 
perfect  in  the  eternal  noon."  Perhaps,  in  speaking 
of  the  liberal  air  of  heaven,  Hayne  broke  the  limits 
of  his  earthly  environment,  and  lived  in  a  great  white 
calm.  Still,  even  in  the  poems  dedicated  to  those 
kindred  artists  he  met  in  the  North,  we  cannot  but  note 
the  aloofness  of  interest,  the  estimate  of  man  above  his 
mission,  the  reverence  for  the  universal  artist  above 
his  relation  to  the  age  in  which  he  lived.  To  his 
friend,  Mrs.  Preston,  Hayne  continually  spoke  of  the 
threatening  age  of  doubt,  of  the  decline  of  faith;  had 
he  been  thrown,  as  Tennyson  was,  in  the  current  of 
the  time,  he  might  have  regarded  the  approach  of 
science  differently.  But  his  Southern  temperament 
held  him  fast.  He  wrote : 


O  man!  when  faith  succumbs,  and  reason  reels, 

Before  some  impious,  bold  iconoclast, 

Turn  to  thy  heart  that  reasons  not,  but  feels; 

Creeds  change!  shrines  perish!  still  (her  instinct  saith), 

Still  the  soul  lives,  the  soul  must  conquer  Death. 

Hold  fast  to  God,  and  God  will  hold  thee  fast. 

The  bravery  with  which  Hayne  met  life  after  the 
war  was  characteristic  of  all  the  people  of  the  South. 
This  man,  sorely  pressed  for  a  livelihood,  could  be 
lieve  with  that  spiritual  fortitude  which  prompted  the 
"  Lyric  of  Action,"  bearing  the  tidings  that  "  'tis  the 
part  of  a  coward  to  brood."  Hayne's  exultation  was 


396    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

unable  to  be  terse  and  definite.  Browning  expressed 
the  sentiment  in  lyric  compression :  "  God's  in  His 
Heaven,  all's  right  with  the  world."  After  war, 
Hayne's  one  desire  was  for  peace;  the  burden  of  many 
of  his  sonnets  is  for  calm. 

Thus  we  could  continue  in  a  more  analytic  fashion 
to  discuss  individual  poems  and  the  preferences  of 
Hayne's  critics,  but  we  would  reach  no  clearer  con 
cept  of  the  poet's  dominant  characteristics.  If  he  had 
no  large  vision  as  to  the  destiny  of  peoples,  we  needs 
must  believe,  with  Mr.  Higginson,  that  this  was 
because  Hayne  was  denied  a  nation,  even  the  lost 
nation  of  the  Confederacy;  in  fact,  declared  this  critic, 
"much  of  the  scantiness  and  aridity  of  our  early 
American  literature  must  undoubtedly  be  ascribed  to 
the  fact  that  it  appeared  at  a  time  when  the  United 
States  meant  a  strip  along  the  Atlantic  shore." 

Yet,  despite  these  limitations,  Hayne's  verse  was 
strong — strong  in  its  sweetness  of  spiritual  beauty, — 
full  of  dignity  and  generous  response,  full  of  vivid 
color,  characteristic  of  the  South  as  well  as  of  the 
quality  of  his  Muse.  Through  excess  of  feeling  he 
never  forsook  appropriateness.  Such  a  sonnet  as 
"  October,"  with  its  opening  line,  "  The  passionate 
summer's  dead !  the  sky's  aglow,"  such  a  flow  of  ap 
preciation  as  fills  "  The  Mocking-Bird  "  are  suggestive 
of  Keats,  if  not  as  final  in  word-phrasing.  On  one 
hand,  there  was  a  pastoral  quality  to  his  lines,  as 
though  no  life  existed  outside  the  pine  barrens  of  //As- 
life;  on  the  other,  there  was  the  sufficiency  of  be 
lief.  These  are  the  limits  of  Hayne;  spiritually 
they  made  him  bigger  than  Timrod,  but  not  as 
impelling;  artistically  they  made  him  at  times  the 
equal  of  Lanier  in  color  and  value  of  words,  but  never 
as  far-reaching  in  view.  Sometimes  he  was  close 
to  Nature  in  her  larger  aspects ;  at  other  times,  strictly 


CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD  397 

Southern  in  local  luxuriance.  He  was  dexterous 
in  the  sonnet  form,  but  his  lyricism  was  often  over 
weighted;  he  was  ambitious  in  dramatic  endeavor, 
but  could  not  escape  the  formalities  of  a  stereo 
typed  sort  which  Hugo,  Dumas,  and  Bulwer  insti 
tuted.  His  accomplishment,  none  the  less,  'entitles 
him  to  a  larger  place  than  he  holds  at  present  in  Amer 
ican  literature. 

But  considering  the  attention  his  work  received  in 
his  own  country  and  abroad,  reflecting  that  through 
correspondence  Hayne  had  the  opportunity  to  widen 
his  mental  vision,  he,  nevertheless,  shut  his  ear  to  the 
sound  of  any  forward  tread.  In  his  little  home,  he 
kept  in  touch  with  literary  production,  but  his  head 
was  above  the  clouds  and  his  feet  were  not  solidly  on 
earth.  He  tested  the  artist  by  no  standard  but  that  of 
personal  appeal,  and  since  that  personal  appeal  was 
high,  the  standard  was  necessarily  high;  he  detected 
no  fermentation  in  the  land.  His  desire  to  go  to 
Europe  was  the  longing  increased  by  the  hope  of 
meeting  such  friends  as  Jean  Ingelow  and  Swin 
burne. 

A  memorial  chapel  was  erected  in  Grovetown  in 
honor  of  the  man  who  died  at  Copse  Hill  on  July  6, 
1886.  His  voice  had  not  sounded  the  clear  martial 
note  of  the  warrior,  although  such  a  ballad  as  "  Mac- 
donald's  Raid,"  barring  a  few  halting  lines,  is  effec 
tive  and  spirited.  Can  we  say  more  than  that  Hayne 
was  a  sweet  singer?  His  aloofness  from  condition 
prevented  his  advance ;  he  rested  where  he  was,  and  it 
was  not  long  before  even  Lanier  could  feel  him  of  an 
other  age. 

Men  of  such  temperament  always  suffer  in  the  final 
estimate,  and  their  hold  becomes  less  as  their  sweet 
ness  and  light  are  absorbed  in  the  general  atmosphere 
of  a  past  epoch. 


398    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

in 

The  fate  of  Timrod  (1829-1867)  is  the  acme  of 
tragedy;  its  tone  is  akin  to  Hayne,  its  agony  sharper 
and  briefer;  even  his  Muse  was  more  intense  in  pas 
sion.  Poverty  dogged  his  footsteps  to  the  very  last, 
standing  in  the  way  of  his  advancement  from  the  time 
he  was  forced  to  cut  short  his  career  at  the  University 
of  Georgia  to  the  time  when,  at  the  close  of  his  life,  he 
was  obliged  to  give  up  the  idea  of  visiting  literary 
friends  in  the  North,  because  of  the  lack  of  necessary 
funds.  Yet,  through  it  all,  he  moved  with  gentle 
humor,  high  enthusiasm,  indomitable  spirit,  and  a  con 
stant  glow  of  high  resolve  and  moral  purpose.  It  is 
difficult  in  literature  to  find  a  more  pitiable  example 
of  persistent  ill-fortune  and  of  unrequited  ambition. 

His  struggle  of  mind  and  body  was  due  to  outward 
circumstance  and  to  physical  weakness.  Timrod  was  as 
much  the  victim  of  war  as  if  he  had  been  killed  on  the 
battle-field.  "  We  have  lived  for  a  long  period,'*  so 
he  wrote  to  Hayne,  "  and  are  still  living,  on  the  pro 
ceeds  of  the  gradual  sale  of  furniture  and  silver  plate. 
We  have — let  me  see — yes,  we  have  eaten  two  silver 
pitchers,  one  or  two  dozen  silver  forks,  several  sofas, 
innumerable  chairs,  and  a  huge  bedstead."  Such  was 
the  strain  constantly  overshadowing  his  life.  The 
cause  for  which  he  had  sung  was  lost,  and  his  mind, 
not  attuned  to  peace,  was  in  no  fit  condition  to  seek  out 
let  in  Northern  periodicals.  He  was  ready  for  any 
sacrifice ;  he  would  even  cast  every  line  he  had  written 
"  to  eternal  oblivion  for  one  hundred  dollars  in  hand." 

We  cannot  question  the  literary  output  of  the 
South  in  the  face  of  such  dire  examples.  Timrod 
was  bequeathed  his  gift  from  his  father,  who  had  fig 
ured  in  the  Seminole  War,  and  who  was  of  German 
origin ;  he  could  look  back  with  pride  to  ancestors  in 
the  Charleston  Fusiliers  of  the  Revolution.  From 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  399 

his  Scotch-Irish  mother,  a  woman  of  rare  beauty  and 
rich  culture,  he  inherited  his  nature-love  and  some  of 
the  tenacity  of  his  moral  fiber. 

It  is  interesting  to  read  the  lines  written  by  his 
father,  William  Henry  Timrod  (1792-1838);  happy 
expressions  are  occasionally  found,  but  their  chief 
value  is  to  be  seen  in  a  delicacy  of  feeling  which  the 
son  developed  later  to  such  an  intense  degree.  Liter 
ary  tradition  has  treasured  Washington  Irving's  ex 
clamation  over  the  elder  Timrod's  "  To  Time,  the  Old 
Traveler  " — that  its  lyric  quality  was  comparable  to 
the  best  of  Tom  Moore,  if  not  finer.  Amidst  an  un 
inspired  assemblage  of  words  in  "The  Mocking-Bird," 
the  picture  is  flashed  in  one  highly  colored  line,  "  The 
little  crimson-breasted  Nonpareil " ;  and  the  senti 
ments  addressed  by  the  father  to  his  son  exhibit  a 
certain  stateliness  which  always  characterized  the  old- 
time  Southern  gentleman's  regard  for  children.  If 
the  elder  Timrod  ranked  among  his  contemporaries  as 
a  poet,  he  was  an  excellent  type  of  the  artist  who  used 
his  Muse  as  an  accomplishment.  Nevertheless,  from 
his  literary  shop,  where  bookbinding  was  done,  Tim- 
rod,  famed  as  a  good  conversationalist,  sent  forth  his 
numerous  effusions,  some  relating  to  the  political 
topic  of  the  day — the  nullification  excitement  of 
1832;  and  he  even  conceived  a  five-act  drama,  follow 
ing  the  example  of  many  Carolina  residents  of  the 
time. 

It  is  positive,  therefore,  that  Henry  Timrod  had  an 
escutcheon  which  even  Charleston  could  not  question. 
Fortunately,  to  a  certain  point,  his  education  was  as 
sured,  and  in  the  primary  schools  he  first  met  Hayne, 
who  was  twenty-three  days  his  junior.  Side  by  side 
they  sat,  and  to  his  new  companion  Timrod  confided 
his  first  effusion — a  love  poem  which  in  temper  was 
far  different  from  the  Northern  schoolmaster,  who  put 
a  summary  stop  to  momentary  consultation.  Timrod 


400    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

is  pictured  as  slow  of  speech  but  quick  of  mind,  like 
Burns ;  his  classic  taste,  at  the  university,  placed  him 
in  possession  of  a  large  store  of  Virgil  and  Horace  and 
^schylus ;  he  likewise  devoted  much  time  to  English 
poetry  and  letters. 

He  was  thus  well  equipped,  when  ill-health  and 
slack  income  came  between  him  and  graduation.  Then, 
like  Hayne,  he  turned  to  law,  reading  under  the  guid 
ance  of  James  L.  Petigru,  and,  like  Hayne,  forsaking 
Coke  for  literary  struggle.  Even  at  college,  under  a 
fictitious  name,  he  sent  his  love  lyrics  to  the  local 
papers — a  habit  which  he  continued  when,  between 
1848-1853,  he  submitted  contributions  to  the  South 
ern  Literary  Messenger,  under  the  nom  dc  plume  of 
Aglaus. 

Unlike  Hayne,  however,  Timrod  strove  for  more 
lucrative  employment  than  verse  writing.  He  obtained 
the  post  of  tutor  in  the  family  of  Murray  Robinson 
of  Orangeburg,  where  there  was  leisure  for  composi 
tion  and  reading,  as  well  as  for  visits  to  Charleston. 
During  this  time,  his  thoughts  were  centered  on  the 
possibility  of  a  professorship  in  some  college. 

Russell's  Magazine  afforded  Timrod  another  chan 
nel  for  his  poetry,  which  increased  sufficiently  in  bulk 
to  warrant  the  publication  of  a  volume  by  Ticknor 
&  Fields  in  1860.  Praise  came  to  him  from  Hayne, 
and,  more  significant  still,  from  the  New  York  Trib 
une.  At  this  moment,  the  approach  of  war  turned 
the  voice  of  Timrod  in  other  directions. 

We  have  already  discussed  the  martial  lyrics  which 
Timrod  wrote  with  a  zest  amounting  almost  to  vindic 
tive  bitterness;  in  default  of  his  personal  participation 
in  the  conflict,  because  of  poor  health,  they  rang  forth 
in  fervid  summons  and  with  indomitable  courage.  All 
the  more  passionate  were  they  in  the  light  of  defeat, 
but  they  served  their  immediate  purpose;  they  were 
heeded,  Charlestonians  and  other  Southerners  even 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  401 

subscribing  to  the  local  papers  so  as  to  have  his  edi 
torial  songs.  After  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  Timrod  went 
forth  as  war-correspondent  for  the  Charleston  Mer 
cury,  and  again  his  strength  failed  him,  and  he  was 
obliged  to  return,  this  time  to  Columbia,  where  he  be 
came  editor  of  the  South  Carolinian.  All  this  while, 
he  was  not  without  literary  reputation,  which  among 
his  Southern  friends  gave  him  an  official  standing  as 
representing  the  voice  of  the  South.  Such  a  feeling 
largely  actuated  the  concerted  move,  during  1862,  to 
issue  a  London  edition  of  his  poems,  in  the  belief,  no 
doubt,  that  the  war  lyrics  would  have  sympathetic  ef 
fect  upon  the  British  public. 

The  one  bright  spot  in  this  period  of  stress  and 
strain  was  Timrod's  marriage  with  Miss  Kate  God 
win,  an  English  girl  whose  brother  had  wed  the  poet's 
sister.  Then  came  the  dark  trail  of  Sherman,  and  the 
death  of  a  baby  boy,  and  the  incipient  signs  of  con 
sumption,  with  the  consequent  "  beggary,  starvation, 
bitter  grief,  and  utter  want  of  hope."  As  though  the 
weight  upon  his  frail  shoulders  was  not  enough,  his 
widowed  sister  and  her  children  turned  to  him  for  aid. 

Here,  then,  is  another  example  of  Christian  forti 
tude  in  the  face  of  insuperable  discouragement;  the 
father-love  that  had  been  deprived  of  rich  joy  was 
bestowed  on  Hayne's  son;  the  willingness  to  work 
met  requital  only  in  odd  clerical  tasks  which  kept 
him  in  the  Governor's  office  at  times  through  the 
long  hours  of  the  night  and  early  morning.  The  one 
constant  factor  in  Timrod's  nature  was  his  genius; 
otherwise,  as  Maurice  Thompson  declared,  he  was 
"born  to  fail  at  the  verge  of  every  opportunity." 
Even  such  a  small  post  as  Messenger  of  the  South 
Carolina  House  of  Representatives  was  denied  him, 
and  then,  in  the  weakness  of  his  physical  condition,  he 
was  sent  to  visit  Hayne  at  Copse  Hill. 

The  chief  impulse  prompting  this   Southern  poet 


402    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

was  his  natural  devotion  to  art;  we  cannot  designate 
its  practice  as  a  calling,  for  the  reason  that  the  com 
munity  regarded  literary  expression  as  an  accident, 
rather  than  as  a  necessity.  In  the  economic  adjust 
ment  which  was  struggling  beneath  the  load  of  Recon 
struction,  there  was  no  place  calculated  for  the  literary 
man;  oratory  had  not  sufficiently  allowed  the  news 
paper  to  appeal  to  public  opinion,  and  editorial  writ 
ing  was  not  heeded  and  in  consequence  not  paid  for. 
In  such  an  atmosphere,  the  poet  was  given  no  incen 
tive  for  preparation ;  he  had  no  immediate  check  upon 
himself,  save  his  own  conception  of  what  true  art  was. 
He  lived  in  aloofness  and  in  constant  strain.  Even 
when  stretched  low  in  his  last  illness,  Timrod  deplored 
that  he  was  so  helpless  at  such  an  awkward  time.  He 
cried :  "  We  are  destitute  of  funds,  almost  of  food. 
But  God  will  provide." 

Death  came  as  a  relief  to  our  Southern  poets;  it 
was  the  salvation  of  Poe ;  it  was  the  peace-offering  to 
Lanier,  who  closed  his  eyes  by  the  open  window,  ful 
filling  Arnold's  desire  in  "  A  Wish,"  to  see 

Once  more,  before  my  dying  eyes, 
Bathed  in  the  sacred  dews  of  morn 

The  wide  aerial  landscape  spread — 
The  world  which  was  ere  I  was  born, 

The  world  which  lasts  when  I  am  dead. 

It  was  also  a  blessed  cessation  of  pain  for  Timrod 
to  die;  during  the  time  his  energy  faded  from  him, 
his  mind  seemed  crystal  clear,  as  he  would  quote  his 
Wordsworth.  He  marched  to  his  end  with  that  quiet 
conviction  expressed  in  "  A  Common  Thought " : 

Somewhere  on  this  earthly  planet 

In  the  dust  of  flowers  to  be, 
In  the  dewdrop,  in  the  sunshine, 

Sleeps  a  solemn  day  for  me. 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  403 

It  is  not  the  province  of  criticism  to  over-accentuate 
such  details  as  Hayne  gives  of  the  last  visit  from 
Timrod ;  but  the  scenes  are  symbolic  of  the  beauty  of 
these  men's  souls  under  stress;  it  was  not  the  tension 
which  makes  for  energy,  but  the  strain  which  pre 
cedes  a  long  peace.  Its  exquisite  cleansing  effect  is 
indicative  of  a  most  beautiful  communion.  These 
brother-poets  had  much  to  talk  about,  and  upon 
Hayne's  son,  Timrod  lavished  a  paternal  devotion 
which  brought  comfort  in  the  face  of  memory.  One 
verse  from  Hayne's  "  Under  the  Pine  "  expresses  the 
transformation : 


O  Tree !  against  thy  mighty  trunk  he  laid 

His  weary  head ;  thy  shade 

Stole  o'er  him  like  the  first  cool  spell  of  sleep ; 

It  brought  a  peace  so  deep 

The  unquiet  passion  died  from  out  his  eyes, 

As  lightning  from  stilled  skies. 


The  end  came  on  October  7,  1867;  some  say  that 
on  Timrod's  bed  were  found  proof-sheets  stained 
in  blood;  others  mention  the  fulfillment  of  his  own 
prophecy  of  dying  when  the  hour  "purples  in  the 
zenith."  A  governor  of  the  State  and  a  general  of 
the  Confederacy  helped  to  bear  the  frail  singer  to  his 
grave. 

And  now,  through  the  stretch  of  years,  our  view  of 
Timrod  should  be  clearer  than  it  is ;  his  voice  is  surer, 
sounder  and  more  sustained  than  Hayne's,  and  were 
it  not  for  an  aloofness  of  spirit  and  a  placidity  of  intel 
lect,  he  might  have  surpassed  Lanier  in  some  respects. 
He  was  not  adventurous  in  the  realm  of  poetry ;  he  did 
not  formulate  theories  but  warmly  defended  estab 
lished  principles. 

He  framed  his  creed,  as  every  singer  has,  expressed 
at  too  great  length  in  "  A  Vision  of  Poesy,"  but  with 


404    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

no  abatement  of  his  divine  mission,  and  with  no  lack 
of  occasional  sensitive  beauty.  Such  a  poem  cannot 
escape  relationship  of  a  close  character  with  one's  own 
being.  Timrod,  brought  into  contact  with  quicken 
ing  forces,  would  have  flowered  into  exceptional  beauty. 
Poesy  avows :  "  I  am  the  voice  of  Freedom  "  in  opposi 
tion  to  the  South's  intellectual  bondage ;  "  The  Poet 
to  the  whole  wide  world  belongs  "  comes  the  assertion 
once  more,  despite  the  guardedness  of  Southern  civili 
zation.  It  was  the  tragedy  of  Timrod,  that  far  off 
he  saw  the  flash  of  science,  the  necessity  of  willing, 
the  moral  significance  of  aspiration  under  favorable 
conditions ;  but  such  a  horizon  was  foreign  at  the  mo 
ment  to  his  section.  Very  largely  he  fulfilled,  as  far 
as  he  himself  was  concerned,  his  concept  of  the  mission 
of  poetry: 

My  task  hath  been,  beneath  a  mightier  Power, 
To  keep  the  world  forever  fresh  and  young.  .   .   . 

I  turn  life's  tasteless  waters  into  wine, 

And  flash  them  through  and  through  with  purple  tints. 

Now  and  again  he  echoed  Keats,  and  in  the  desire 
to  be  strong,  yet  gentle  as  a  girl,  he  set  the  propor 
tions  of  his  own  nature.  There  are  glints  of  Words 
worth  in  the  second  part,  glints  also  of  a  democratic 
desire  to  "  represent  the  race  and  speak  for  all " ;  the 
cosmic  law  which  presages  order  in  the  universe  came 
to  him  probably  through  Tennyson. 

Yet,  however  autobiographic  "  A  Vision  of  Poesy  " 
may  be,  it  represents  potential  intellectual  powers, 
rather  than  characteristic  touches  of  Timrod's  art. 
Hayne  was  sensitive  to  outward  beauty ;  Timrod  like 
wise  was  prompted  by  the  same  love  for  Nature,  in 
tensified  by  a  fuller  realization  of  the  inward  mystery 
of  life.  This  was  the  result  of  his  devotion  to  Words- 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  405 

worth.  And  ofttimes,  as  in  "The  Summer  Bower," 
we  note  the  moral  color  given  to  the  scene  in  con 
sonance  with  Wordsworth's  personal  attitude  toward 
the  objective  world.  Timrod  had  much  of  this  pur 
pose  in  his  composition — the  purpose  behind  "  The 
meanest  flower  that  blows"  or  "Flower  in  your 
crannied  wall." 

There  was  naught  of  physical  vigor  in  his  verse, 
unless  it  expressed  sectional  feeling,  as  in  "  Carolina," 
"A  Cry  to  Arms,"  and  "  Ethnogenesis  " — a  wrathful 
energy  none  the  less  stirring  for  all  its  defiance  to 
the  Goths  and  Huns  of  the  North — an  energy  which 
ebbed  into  sweet  expressive  supplications  for  peace, 
in  the  tender  poem,  "  Christmas." 

Save  in  these  martial  lyrics,  Timrod's  vitality  was 
not  due  to  strife,  but  to  moments  of  thoughtful  ease, 
such  as  he  pictured  in  "  Retirement."  Yet  to  him 
there  was  no  end  of  power  and  vigor  in  Nature.  He 
writes,  in  "  Spring  " : 

In  the  deep  heart  of  every  forest  tree 
The  blood  is  all  aglee. 

Note  a  verse  from  an  "Ode  to  the  Confederate 
Dead  " : 

In  seeds  of  laurel  in  the  earth 
The  blossom  of  your  fame  is  blown, 

And  somewhere,  waiting  for  its  birth, 
The  shaft  is  in  the  stone. 

Nature  was  not  formal  to  Timrod,  nor  did  he  re 
fuse  to  see  in  it  only  the  color  of  the  South.  "  Spring," 
barring  the  bitter  note  in  the  last  stanzas,  is  sensate 
with  beauty,  harmed  in  its  sharp  delicacy  by  its  lack 
of  condensation.  "  The  Cotton  Boll,"  mistaken  in  its 
economic  faith,  is  none  the  less  telling  in  its  imagina- 


406     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

live  stretch,  in  its  rich  loyalty,  in  some  of  its  effect 
ive  phrasing, — even  challenging  comparison  with  La- 
nier's  "  Corn."  But  here  again  we  note  the  impossi 
bility  of  these  poets — save  Lanier — to  see  the  curse 
that  lay  in  the  prodigality  of  Nature,  with  her  conse 
quent  stamp  upon  the  "steadfast  dweller  on  the  self 
same  spot,"  whose  "mild  content  rebukes  the  land." 
They  could  not  escape  a  habit  of  mind. 

While  one  grants,  with  Axon,  that  Timrod  is  a 
minor  poet,  that  his  expression  lacks  "  high  austerity 
of  manner"  and  keen  originality  of  thought,  while  it  is 
also  true  that  he  possessed  a  "  clear  spiritual  insight 
which  sometimes  produces  the  effect  of  thought,"  these 
limitations  do  not  decrease  his  lyrical  charm  or  his 
moral  purity  and  earnestness.  His  sentiment  found 
full  expression  in  the  poems  to  his  wife,  "  A  Dedica 
tion  "  and  "Katie,"  and  to  "Our  Willie,"  behind 
which  lurks  the  tenderness  and  the  simple  expression 
of  "  We  are  Seven."  "  A  Mother's  Wail  "  is  two-fold 
in  its  construction,  with  a  contemplation  after  the 
storm  of  grief,  almost  Celtic  in  its  blinding  melancholy, 
in  its  shadowy  visions.  It  touches  by  reason  of  its  flow 
of  sorrow;  it  is  not  alive  with  the  eternal  verities  of 
Tennyson's  philosophy.  In  fact,  there  was  no  system 
to  Hayne's  and  Timrod's  belief. 

It  may  be  wrong  to  bring  a  minor  poet  into  juxta 
position  with  the  highest  standards,  but,  in  defense, 
these  men — it  must  be  reiterated — were  inspired  by  the 
highest  art;  their  responsive  tastes  deplored  the  in 
ferior  verse  which  locality  treasured  and  defended 
against  true  criticism.  They  likewise  fell  into  trite 
expression,  but  no  one  was  near  to  correct  them  in 
their  work. 

Timrod  was  characteristically  Southern  in  his  lighter 
sentiment,  found  in  "The  Lily  Confidante,"  "On 
Pressing  Some  Flowers  "  and  "  Love's  Logic  " ;  and 


CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD  407 

his  lyric  devotion  to  his  wife  in  "An  Exotic"  ap 
proached  the  epitome  of  cultured  delicacy  in  such 
stanzas  as: 

Her  beauty,  perhaps,  was  all  too  bright, 

But  about  her  there  broods  some  delicate  spell, 

Whence  the  wondrous  charm  of  the  girl  grows  soft 
As  the  light  in  an  English  dell. 

Timrod,  in  his  workmanship,  exemplified  the  oft- 
used  thought  that  man's  natural  expression  is 
rhythmic;  and  in  a  most  terse  estimate,  Mr.  R.  A. 
Bowen  is  wise  in  calling  him  "  a  poet  born  but  not  a 
poet  made,  and,  therefore,  .  .  .  not  a  thorough  poet 
after  all." 

It  is  well  to  use  Dr.  Ward's  statement  in  further 
contrasting  Timrod  with  his  contemporaries,  for  un 
doubtedly  he  showed  an  inclination  "  toward  broadly 
religious  or  spiritual  musing."  This  tendency  may 
have  come  with  his  close  following  of  some  of  the 
literature  current  at  the  time,  as  well  as  with  his  famil 
iarity  with  Coleridge  and  Matthew  Arnold.  His 
reading  was  unsystematized  and  he  had  no  pretensions 
to  scholarship.  In  fact,  his  prose,  while  adequate  in 
expression,  was  hardly  what  one  could  consider  pene 
trating  in  thought ;  he  lost  the  scientific  in  an  excess  of 
instinctive  understanding  that  was  colored  by  feeling. 
Because  of  this,  his  definition  of  poetry  is  deprived  of 
cogency,  though  it  begins  well :  "  Its  aim  is  to  pene 
trate  to  the  essence,  to  analyze  and  comprehend  those 
impressions  and  operations  of  the  mind,  acting  upon 
and  being  acted  upon  by  mental  or  physical  phenomena, 
which,  when  incarnated  in  language,  all  recognize  as 
the  utterance  of  poetry,  and  which  affects  us  like  the 
music  of  angels." 

In  his  "Theory  of  Poetry,"  writing  in  opposition 
to  Poe,  Timrod  analyzed  the  subtle  connections  in 
"  Paradise  Lost "  leading  to  its  essential  structure  as 


408    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

a  long  poem.  Likewise,  showing  how  much  of  a  dis 
ciple  he  was  of  Wordsworth,  he  devoted  some  space 
in  his  "Rationale  of  Verse  "  to  the  belief  that  morality 
is  inherent  in  beauty. 

But  such  generalizations  had  no  appreciable  effect 
on  his  own  poetry;  he  knew  no  deep  reasons  for  the 
excellences  of  verse,  rather  depending  upon  a  nice  ear 
than  upon  the  science  of  prosody.  His  conception 
of  the  sonnet  was  thus  instinctive,  and  caught  from  a 
particular  fondness  for  the  form,  so  especially  perfect 
in  Wordsworth.  What  is  most  significant  about  his 
utterances  on  the  sonnet,  is  his  refusal  to  fall  back 
utterly  on  the  inspirational  theory  of  poetry,  a 
theory  which  encouraged  the  Southern  dilettante  in 
whom  emotion  was  plentiful ;  he  realized,  if  he  did  not 
continually  make  use  of,  "  the  hour  of  patient  and 
elaborate  execution." 

Timrod's  own  sonnets  are  his  greatest  defense  of 
the  form  itself;  they  are  full  of  moral  beauty,  and 
though  trite  expressions  destroy  their  whole  effective 
ness,  the  thought  is  naturally  held  within  the  form, 
without  being  forced  or  curtailed  by  artificial  com 
pression.  Perhaps  they  are  the  most  conscious  ex 
amples  of  his  art  and  the  least  native;  perhaps,  also, 
their  tendency  to  lyricism  is  more  appropriate  to  the 
lyric  form ;  still  they  represent  Timrod's  best  charac 
teristics  as  a  man,  if  not  his  most  graceful  expression. 

As  we  have  said,  his  conception  of  poetry  was  high, 
and  in  his  democracy  he  would  bid  the  poet  "  Cling 
to  the  lowly  earth,  and  be  content!"  In  accord  with 
Lanier,  he  would  have  had  "  Love,  like  a  visible  God 
.  .  .  be  our  guide."  He  did  not  write  as  much  as 
Hayne,  but  his  lyricism  was  sharper,  and  that,  to 
Lanier,  the  critic,  was  the  essential  of  all  the  highest 
lyrics.  Writing  of  Hayne,  he  once  said :  "  The  ideal 
of  the  lyric  poem  is  a  brief,  sweet,  intense,  electric 
flashing  of  the  lyric  idea  in  upon  the  hurrying  intelli- 


CIVIL   WAR   PERIOD  409 

gence  of  men,  so  that  the  vivid  truth  may  attack  even 
an  unwilling  retina,  and  perpetuate  itself  thereupon 
even  after  the  hasty  eyelid  has  closed  to  shut  out  the 
sight." 

If,  therefore,  there  is  one  characteristic  above  all 
else  to  accentuate  the  name  of  Henry  Timrod,  other 
than  the  agony  of  his  life,  it  is  the  occasional  com 
pelling  force  of  his  lyric  beauty. 


IV 

We  have  'exhausted  whatever  points  of  originality 
there  are  in  the  Southern  poetry  of  this  period.  Dr. 
Francis  Orrery  Ticknor  (1822-1874)  does  not  even 
approach  his  contemporaries  in  the  variety  of  his  in 
terests;  his  observation  was  narrowed,  until  his  verse 
partook  of  a  local  essence  which  is  full  of  neighbor 
hood  beauty.  He  brought  to  Columbus,  Ga.,  Virginia 
tradition  and  New  Jersey  inheritance;  his  medical 
training  represented  a  limited  contact  with  the  North, 
but  the  slender  stream  of  his  inspiration  flowed 
through  a  territory  not  far  beyond  "  Torch  Hill,"  the 
plantation  just  outside  the  town  of  Columbus  itself. 

One  may  follow  the  Georgia  and  Virginia  strains 
in  Ticknor's  poems;  they  throb  with  an  associative 
touch  that  measures  a  chivalric  attitude,  a  leisurely 
humor,  a  graceful  sentiment,  and  an  inherited  reli 
gious  bearing.  The  Ticknor  family  deplore  the  fact 
that  the  small  volume,  edited  by  Kate  Mason  Rowland, 
prefaced  by  Hayne,  and  published  by  the  Lippincotts 
in  1879,  omitted  many  of  his  most  distinctive  poems, 
but  it  is  not  likely  that  the  poet  ever  surpassed  the 
limits  of  his  environment,  so  clearly  denoted  in  this 
slender  collection. 

For  one  must  not  deceive  oneself  regarding  the 
literary  isolation  of  Columbus,  or  even  regarding  the 
indifference  of  Ticknor,  as  to  the  wide  appeal  of  his 


4io    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

occasional  efforts;  he  did  not  seek  a  publisher  for 
them;  he  was  content  to  submit  them  to  the  brief 
appreciation  of  the  newspaper  reader. 

Such  pure  lyrics  as  he  wrote  cannot  be  discounted ; 
however,  they  should  not  be  overemphasized.  Ticknor 
was  what  he  was,  a  country  physician  whose  kind 
ness  was  larger  than  his  income,  who  found  content 
in  things  near  at  hand;  he  cultivated  his  garden  and 
farmed  with  no  inconsiderable  success;  he  even  wrote 
for  a  horticultural  paper  in  Athens,  Georgia,  and 
amidst  his  strictly  rural  occupations,  amidst  his  pro 
vincial  influences,  his  rustic  being  uttered  sentiments 
relating  to  the  intimate  objects  of  his  love  and  of  his 
affection. 

When  Ticknor  purchased  "Torch  Hill,"  he  was 
already  married  to  Rosalie,  the  daughter  of  Major 
T.  N.  Nelson;  for  twenty-five  years  these  two  lived 
on  their  farm  overlooking  the  valley  of  the  Chatta- 
hoochee.  In  the  stanzas  entitled  "  The  Farmer  Man," 
the  poet  turns  critic  of  himself,  and  paints  a  lazy  pic 
ture,  a  landscape  with  considerable  tone,  but  deplorably 
lacking  in  vigor.  An  unfortunate  commentary  that 
the  Southern  planter  should  see  his  world,  framed 
between  his  heels,  as  he  sat  idly  viewing  the  purple 
hills  and  the  natural  beauty  of  a  Southern  stretch. 
There  is  naught  impelling  in  the  verse  of  Ticknor. 

Yet  "  Little  Giffin  "  is  a  gem  of  heroic  ideality,  and 
"  The  Virginians  of  the  Valley  "  exquisite  in  its  bal 
lad  form.  Maurice  Thompson  compares  these  lyrics 
with  those  of  Beranger;  there  is  no  conscious  effort 
in  them,  no  excess  of  bombastic  emotion.  Ticknor 
had  the  happy  faculty  of  saying  simply  what  was 
uppermost  in  his  feelings;  his  lyric  sounded  the  strain 
of  the  Cavalier — a  mixture  of  devotion,  romantic  hero- 
worship,  and  gentle  melancholy  which  comes  with  de 
feat,  but  there  are  no  distinctive  features  by  which  to 


CIVIL  WAR   PERIOD  411 

accentuate  his  works.  They  possess  a  home  philoso 
phy  which  is  instilled  into  all  of  us  at  an  early  age; 
they  contain  a  lingering  sweetness  that  permeated 
every  Southern  day  of  the  old  order.  They  are  full 
of  Georgia,  and  especially  of  Columbus;  across  the 
fields  from  him  was  the  neighboring  plantation  of 
"  Esquiline  Hill,"  which  became  the  source  of  inspira 
tion  for  many  lyrics ;  from  "  Torch  Hill "  in  the 
twilight  he  could  see  the  town  with  its  faint  lights 
— that  town  which  a  jessamine  leaf  could  hide  thus 
far  from  his  view,  which  inclination  and  occupation 
could  keep  frorp  his  heart. 

Ticknor  aptly  illustrates  what  was  at  the  same  time 
the  grace  and  weakness  of  the  best  Southern  lyric 
poetry;  he  instinctively  cared  for  the  outward  form 
of  his  verse,  without  being  much  concerned  about  its 
inward  structure;  from  his  narrow  vision  he  sang 
of  common  things,  and  of  friends,  and  even  of  the 
features  of  the  landscape.  Where  his  casual  eye 
rested,  there  he  sang.  His  idea  of  "The  Hills"  is 
only  faintly  suggested,  with  an  indefinite  aroma  of 
learning,  and  an  emotional  sweep  of  expression.  His 
science,  his  religion,  his  social  views  were  all  those  of 
a  countryman ;  he  was  proud  of  his  dual  role  in  "  Poeta 
in  Rure."  His  misgivings  were  that 

Within  these  fields  of  care  and  strife 

A  man  may  come,  no  doubt, 
To  be  a  poet,  all  his  life, 

And  never  find  it  out. 

And  his  belief  was  that  he  who  labored,  worked  in 
vain,  if  he 

.   .   .  reared  no  blossom  when  he  wrought 

With  summer  on  the  plain, 
No  garland  of  a  golden  thought 

To  glorify  his  grain. 


4i2    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

Ticknor  possessed  artistic  sensitiveness ;  he  was  mu 
sician  and  artist  and  poet ;  his  conversation  was  hold 
ing,  his  manner  slow.  He  allowed  his  horse  to  amble 
on  the  road  from  town,  and  he  breathed  in  too  freely 
the  quietness  of  a  country  atmosphere.  This  certainly 
weakened  the  value  of  his  verse,  and  did  not  percepti 
bly  increase  his  material  wealth.  Nature  was  bounti 
ful,  and  home  was  all  the  world  he  most  wanted. 

One  cannot,  with  Hayne,  detect  the  culture  in  his 
verse,  though  there  is  a  refinement  of  manner  which 
is  part  of  the  Southerner's  charm ;  more  readily  can 
one  see  in  Ticknor's  war  lyrics  that  sturdy  character 
which  Maurice  Thompson  rightly  claims  is  back  of 
"  a  genuine  popular  ballad."  But  it  was  lack  of  proper 
stimulus  that  limited  Ticknor.  The  lotus  quality  of 
his  verse  was  the  lotus  quality  of  his  life.  He  delved 
in  the  soil,  but  saw  not  the  force  within. 


Spiritual  fervor  is  the  chief  stamp  of  Southern 
poetry.  Mrs.  Margaret  Junkin  Preston  (1820-1897) 
showed  this  to  a  marked  degree,  and  her  career  was 
all  the  more  of  interest,  in  that  but  few  women  in 
the  South  cultivated  the  profession  of  letters.  In 
1848,  her  father  became  president  of  Washington  Uni 
versity  in  Lexington,  Va.,  and  was  later  succeeded  by 
Robert  E.  Lee.  Thus  thrown  in  the  midst  of  a  cul 
tured  atmosphere,  it  is  small  wonder  that  the  daughter 
should  have  imbibed  a  variety  of  knowledge  in  her 
talk  with  the  professors — a  method  of  learning  rich, 
but  by  no  means  systematic.  From  the  Covenanter 
stock  she  drew  her  fervor,  and  a  natural  love  for 
the  beautiful  was  more  fully  developed  by  her  keen 
appreciation  of  the  Brownings,  Tennyson,  and  Long 
fellow. 

Moreover,  she  married,  in  1857,  Professor  J.  T.  L. 


CIVIL   WAR    PERIOD  413 

Preston,  of  the  Virginia  Military  Institute,  who 
further  encouraged  her  in  her  intellectual  inclinations, 
even  though  members  of  his  family  highly  disapproved 
of  a  woman  seeking  print.  As  a  link  with  the  past, 
Preston  had  been  a  friend  of  Poe. 

The  seriousness  of  the  religious  training  which  was 
given  her,  tempered  her  feelings  somewhat;  it  like 
wise  had  great  effect  upon  the  character  of  "  Stone 
wall  "  Jackson,  who  married  Mrs.  Preston's  sister. 
In  fact,  for  the  proper  appreciation  of  social  forces  af 
fecting  both  the  educational  and  outside  mental  inter 
ests  of  Lexington,  one  must  necessarily  consider  the 
Scotch-Irish  element,  and  the  strict  Calvinistic  stern 
ness  of  Mrs.  Preston's  Presbyterian  father. 

Still,  this  in  no  way  limited  her  ambition;  and  she 
studied  so  continuously  as  to  harm  her  sight ;  she  wrote 
much,  practicing  every  variety  of  form.  Her  corre 
spondence  accentuates  many  points;  the  Southern 
woman  had  much  to  contend  with  in  the  profession 
of  letters,  on  the  side  of  prejudice,  of  isolation,  and 
of  womanly  duties.  She  felt  the  odds  against  her, 
and  she  wrote  for  the  sheer  love  of  expression, 
without  making  any  effort  to  claim  the  title  of  poet. 
Mrs.  Preston's  correspondence  with  Hayne,  whom  she 
never  met,  contains  the  whole  history  of  her  intellectual 
bearing,  of  her  inspiration  and  aspiration.  She  had 
much  in  common  with  her  contemporaries  in  the 
South,  and  during  the  war,  while  her  husband  was  on 
the  field,  she  kept  a  diary,  the  first  entry  being  April, 
1862,  which  is  more  significant  for  our  purpose  than 
the  lines  of  sentiment  which  have  no  distinctive  quality 
outside  of  the  usual  Southern  sentiment.  As  part 
of  the  atmosphere  of  the  Civil  War,  "  Beechenbrook  " 
should  be  read,  for  it  was  popular  in  its  day.  It  was 
written  upon  rough  paper  made  in  the  Confederacy, 
and  was  read  to  the  soldiers  by  Preston,  who  carried 
it  with  him  in  installments.  Her  lyrics  range  from 


414    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

the  stirring  conception  of  "  Through  the  Pass "  to 
poems  of  pure  devotional  strain.  Her  excellences 
were  largely  those  of  character,  for  her  art  was  hap 
hazard,  practiced  as  her  daily  duties  would  allow. 

She  corresponded  widely  with  literary  people. 
She  went  abroad,  writing  Hayne  from  the  Grasmere 
of  his  dreams;  she  prepared  reminiscences  of  Jackson 
and  Lee,  even  attempting  fiction  which  depicts  Vir 
ginia  life.  But  the  social  student  should  turn  to 
her  for  just  those  details  she  preserved  in  her  "  Jour 
nal  of  War  Times."  Such  record  is  significant. 
Her  poetry  was  diversified  in  topic  but  hardly  varied 
in  interest;  her  influences  were  undoubtedly  across 
seas,  and  we  see  the  shadow  of  Mrs.  Browning  in  her 
verse.  Here  then  is  another  poet  of  the  South,  with 
no  definite  meaning,  no  consuming  power,  no  dominant 
note*. 


V 
THE  NEW  SOUTH 


TABLE   OF   AUTHORS* 


1822-1898 
1825-1903 
1838-1905 

1838- 

1840- 

1844- 
1845-1903 

1845-1909 
1845- 

1847-1904 

1848-1908 
1849- 
1849- 
1850- 
1850- 

1851-1889 
1852- 

1853-1879 

1853- 
1854- 

1854- 
1855- 
1856- 
1856- 
1857- 
1858- 
1858- 
1859- 
1861- 
1862- 
1864- 
1864-1909 
1864- 
1865- 
1866- 
1869- 
1860- 
1870- 
1872- 
1874- 


RICHARD  MALCOLM  JOHNSTON  .     .        Georgia 
.     J.  L.  M.  CURRY     ....      Alabama 
ALBION    TOURGE"E          .     .     .     Louisiana 
.     F.  HOPKINSON  SMITH     .     .     .     Maryland 
HENRY  WATTERSON       .     .     .     Kentucky 
.   GEORGE  W.  CABLE  ....     Louisiana 
JOHN    HENRY    BONER      .      .     N.  C,  N.  Y. 
JOHN    B.   TABB      ....       Virginia 
.    GEORGE   HERBERT   SASS     .         South  Carolina 
CARLYLE  McKiNLEY      .     .     .     Ga.,  S.  C. 
.    JOEL  CHANDLER  HARRIS    .     .     .        Georgia 
JAMES  LANE  ALLEN       .     .     .     Kentucky 
FRANCES  HODGSON  BURNETT,  England,  Tenn.,  D.  C. 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

.    ROBERT  BURNS  WILSON  . 

HENRY  GRADY 

GRACE  KING  .  . 
IRWIN  RUSSELL  . 
.  THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE  . 
HARRY  STILLWELL  EDWARDS 
.  SAMUEL  MINTURN  PECK  . 
.  .  WALTER  H.  PAGE  .  . 

ALCEE  FORTIER 

WILLIAM  HAMILTON  HAYNE 

FRANK  L.  STANTON 

.     YATES  SNOWDEN    . 

.   WILL  N.  HARBEN   . 

DANS/KE  DANDRIDGE 


Kentucky 
Pa.,  Ky. 
Georgia 
Louisiana 
.     Miss.,  La. 
Virginia 
Virginia 
Alabama 
North  Carolina 
Louisiana 
.     S.  C,  Ga. 
Georgia 
South  Carolina 
Georgia 
West  Virginia 


EDWIN  A.  ALDERMAN  N.  C.Va. 


.       W.  P.  TRENT      . 

.  BENJAMIN  SLEDD  . 
JOHN  BELL  HENNEMAN 

.    ROBERT   LOVEMAN 

.   MADISON  CAWEIN   . 

.  WALTER  M  ALONE  . 
EDGAR  GARDNER  MURPHY 


Virginia,  Tenn. 

.     .     Va.,  N.  C. 

S.  C,  Tenn. 

.    Georgia 

Kentucky 

Miss.,  Tenn. 

Texas,  Alabama 


JOHN   Fox,  JR Kentucky 

MARY  JOHNSTON    ....       Virginia 

EDWIN    MIMS       .      .       North  Carolina 

ELLEN   GLASGOW    ....       Virginia 


*  Among  other  Southern  writers,  may  be  mentioned  Miss 
Sarah  Barnwell  Elliott  (Tenn.),  Mrs.  Burton  Harrison  (1846, 
Virginia),  Amelie  Rives  (Princess  Troubetzkoy,  1863,  Virginia), 
Mrs.  Virginia  Frazer  Boyle  (Tenn.),  Mrs.  Ruth  McEnery 
Stuart  (La.),  Mrs.  M.  E.  M.  Davis  (1852,  Ala.,  Texas,  La.), 
Miss  Molly  Elliott  Seawell  (1860,  Virginia).  Samuel  L.  Clem 
ens  (1835-1910),  because  of  his  birth  in  Missouri,  is  regarded 
by  some  historians  as  a  Southern  product. 

Among  the  negro  writers  may  be  mentioned :  Booker  T. 
Washington  (1859  [?1,  Va.,  Ala.),  W.  E.  B.  DuBois  (1868, 
Mass.,  Ga.),  C.  W.  Chesnutt  (1858,  N.  C),  and  P.  L.  Dunbar 
(1872-1908,  Ohio). 


CHAPTER  XVII 
SOCIAL  FORCES 

THE  FALL  OF  THE  OLD  REGIME  ;  THE  SOUTH  AMONG 
THE  RUINS;  THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  RECONSTRUC 
TION;  A  CHANGE  OF  ECONOMIC  BASE;  THE  NEW 
PROBLEMS  AND  THEIR  CRITICS — GEORGE  CABLE, 
EDGAR  GARDNER  MURPHY,  THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE 
AND  OTHERS;  EDUCATION  IN  THE  SOUTH;  NEGRO 
LEADERSHIP — BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON,  DuBois 
AND  OTHERS;  THE  RESULTS:  THE  ECONOMIC, 
SOCIAL,  AND  POLITICAL  STATUS  OF  THE  NEGRO; 
THE  POOR  WHITE;  THE  EMIGRANT;  INDUSTRIAL 
ISM;  DEMOCRATIC  TENDENCIES. 


THE  manner  in  which  the  South  faced  the  future 
after  the  Civil  War  represents  one  of  the  highest  ex 
amples  of  idealism  known  to  history.  It  was  not  an 
easy  matter  to  hold  in  check  a  righteous  indignation 
over  the  follies  of  Reconstruction,  to  be  deprived  of 
citizenship,  and  to  be  made  subservient  in  many  direc 
tions  to  the  freedman.  Yet,  through  an  epic  will,  the 
Confederate  soldier  went  back  to  his  home, — not  to 
despair,  though  the  seared  trail  of  war  met  his  view 
everywhere ;  not  to  idleness,  though  he  had  been  here 
tofore  unaccustomed  to  work  in  a  general  sense;  not 
to  lawlessness,  though  every  means  of  self-govern 
ment  were  removed  from  him;  but  to  the  resumption 
of  the  old  responsibilities  and  to  the  assumption  of 
new. 

Before  the  question  of  slavery  was  brought  to  a  test 
417 


418    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

of  arms,  the  South  realized  that  the  economic  system 
was  doomed  to  modification;  it  had  been  thrown  in 
close  contact  writh  the  negro  for  generations,  and  what 
ever  there  was  of  latent  good  in  the  slave,  a  pater 
nalistic  care  had  developed.  Better  than  anyone,  the 
Southerner  realized  the  dangers  of  sudden  emancipa 
tion  and  the  consequences,  the  excesses  which  would 
follow  under  the  mistaken  rule  of  the  Republican 
party.  First  of  all,  abolition  was  fanaticism,  based  on 
a  broad  ethical  principle  which  had  nothing  to  do  with 
the  actual  negro  as  a  factor  in  the  community;  the 
egregious  blunders  of  Reconstruction  measure  the 
crass  ignorance  on  the  part  of  Congress  regarding  the 
status  of  the  negro.  So  it  was  that,  coupled  with 
poverty  and  degradation,  the  Confederate  veteran 
found  a  new  burden  on  his  shoulders ;  he  still  was  re 
sponsible  for  the  welfare  of  the  negro,  as  much  for 
his  own  protection  as  for  the  negro's  good. 

Dr.  Alderman's  phrase,  "  The  education  of  defeat," 
is  the  condensed  history  of  Southern  idealism.  From 
the  time  that  Lincoln's  unconstitutional,  though  human, 
pronouncement  set  the  slave  free,  the  stricken  section 
realized  its  obligations ;  it  knew  the  negro  so  well  that 
it  did  not  regard  the  removal  of  chains  a  menace,  in 
asmuch  as  the  plantation  system  would  serve  to  hold 
the  frccdman  in  check  for  the  moment.  But  the  fa 
natic  of  the  North  was  the  South's  chief  menace.  We 
do  not  claim  that  wisdom  alone  was  to  be  found  in 
the  defeated  section,  but  forbearance  hid  to  a  large 
extent  the  extreme  bitterness  which  was  felt  toward 
the  North  at  large. 

The  tragedy  of  Lincoln's  death  brought  dire  mis 
fortune  to  the  South;  had  he  lived,  the  re-establish 
ment  of  the  seceded  States  would  have  been  accom 
plished  with  little  of  the  blindness  and  spleen  of  the 
victor;  yet  Congress  proceeded  to  be  blind,  once  it 
had  successfully  tied  the  hands  of  Johnson.  It  was 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  419 

the  unwisdom  of  such  men  as  Thaddeus  Stevens,  the 
mistaken  observation  of  such  politicians  as  Carl 
Schurz,  that  were  responsible  for  most  of  the  hysteri 
cal  legislation  which  thrust  the  negro  into  a  superior 
civilization,  recognizing  his  abstract  right  but  not  see 
ing  his  utter  unpreparedness  for  the  privileges. 

Had  the  seceded  States  been  allowed  to  return  to  the 
Union  on  their  old  basis,  as  Lincoln  had  planned, 
there  would  have  been  none  of  the  dire  friction  which 
eventually  assumed  a  most  aggravated  form.  But  it 
required  the  clear  vision  of  a  Lincoln  to  master  the 
situation;  Johnson,  perhaps  sincere  in  maintaining  the 
policy  of  the  martyred  President,  did  not  possess  his 
genius.  The  representatives  in  Congress  were 
obsessed  with  the  idea  of  protecting  the  political  status 
of  the  negro,  the  unprincipled  body  of  the  Republican 
party  using  the  freedman  for  personal  ends.  In  the 
state  of  bitterness  which  existed,  no  acknowledgment 
was  made  of  the  South's  right  to  maintain  the  ascend 
ancy  of  the  white  over  the  black — a  question  during 
Reconstruction  which  was  vitally  important,  especially 
in  such  a  State  as  Mississippi,  where  the  population 
was  predominantly  black. 

The  time  has  now  arrived  in  the  study  of  history 
when  we  may  weigh  arguments  dispassionately — even 
realizing  some  of  that  passion  which  was  behind  the 
acts  of  Reconstruction.  We  may  follow  the  war  and 
trace,  step  by  step,  the  elements  which  changed  the 
conception  of  government  on  both  sides.  Thus  we  may 
understand  President  Wilson's  statement  that  the 
struggle  "  was  a  revolution  of  consciousness, — of  mind 
and  purpose.  A  government  which  had  been  in  its 
spirit  federal  became,  almost  of  a  sudden,  national  in 
temper  and  point  of  view."  This  would  betoken  a 
modification  of  idea,  not  only  in  the  South  but  in  the 
North  as  well.  For  the  despotic  sway  of  a  war  party 
was  not  conducive  to  quick  and  easy  adjustment.  It 


420     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

was  soon  found  that  legislation  would  not  affect  the 
mental  capacity  of  the  freedman,  though,  in  1867, 
Congress  overestimated  that  capacity.  The  amend 
ments  to  the  Constitution  were  passed  as  law,  but  the 
sovereign  will  of  each  one  of  the  Southern  States 
gradually  blocked  their  effectiveness  as  the  individual 
legislatures  thought  necessary,  and  to-day,  in  the  prob 
lems  of  population  and  in  the  distribution  of  repre 
sentation  the  negro  is  still  regarded  as  an  uncertain 
factor  in  the  political  balance.  This  means  that,  in 
spite  of  education,  in  spite  of  the  broadening  of  the 
negroes'  economic  capability,  there  is  still  discrimina 
tion  which  goes  deeper  than  a  vote  and  becomes  racial. 
The  excesses  of  Reconstruction  were  products  of  fanat 
icism;  the  Republican  leaders  showed  no  willing 
ness  to  call  into  play  the  best  spirit  of  the  South,  and 
here  is  where  the  historian  judges  Lincoln  correctly 
when  it  is  averred  that  he  would  have  ranged  himself  on 
the  side  of  the  Democrats  and  Southern  whites,  by  his 
firmness  carrying  with  him  the  moderate  Republicans. 
The  ballot  was  the  symbol  of  Congressional  folly.  And 
until  the  States,  taken  back  into  the  Union,  might  exert 
their  civil  and  sovereign  power  in  the  governing  of 
their  individual  affairs,  the  South  stood  still,  only  re 
sorting  to  secret  organization  for  immediate  protection, 
when  irresponsibility  threatened  life  and  property. 
Then  it  was  that  the  Ku  Klux  Klan  worked  silently, 
effectively,  and  sometimes,  unfortunately,  excessively. 
The  whole  situation  was  tragic. 

The  nation,  of  which  the  South  is  part,  is  suffering 
to-day  from  the  ills  of  Reconstruction ;  though  educa 
tion  in  its  various  aspects  is  bringing  forth  the  excel 
lences  of  the  negro,  it  is  also  showing  his  deficiencies 
of  character — deficiencies  which,  according  to  Page, 
were  only  too  seriously  aggravated  when  he  was 
widely  proclaimed  to  be  the  ward  of  the  nation.  Be 
cause  of  this  idea,  it  was  difficult  for  Booker  T,  Wash- 


GEORGE    W.    CABLE. 
By  courtesy  of  Charles  Scribner'g  Sons. 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  421 

ington  to  establish  his  scheme  for  industrial  training, 
where  the  one  dominant  factor  is  self-reliance;  because 
of  this  idea,  DuBois  has  developed  the  irresponsible 
belief  that  negro  education  meant  useless  book- 
learning,  into  an  idealism  which  is  not  thoroughly 
founded  on  mental  fitness,  but  upon  the  negro's  right, 
whether  he  deserves  it  or  not.  One  has  only  to  think 
of  the  terrible  difficulties  under  which  the  South  has 
labored,  to  understand  why  it  has  been  retarded  in  its 
national  outlook,  why  it  has  persisted  in  remaining 
"  solid  "  in  its  political  action. 

Yet,  as  we  have  said,  the  Confederate  veteran  stood 
by,  practicing  as  much  forbearance  as  the  situation  de 
manded.  Provisional  governors  were  placed  over  him, 
illiterate  negroes  were  given  the  franchise,  while  the 
"  carpet-bagger "  and  the  "  scalawag "  aided  in  this 
disintegrating  policy.  For  forces  were  working  to 
alienate  the  black  from  his  very  best  friend,  and  to 
throw  suspicion  upon  the  white.  The  execution  of  law 
within  the  military  districts  which,  between  1867  and 
1870,  constituted  the  plan  of  reconstruction,  was  des 
potic;  the  commander  had  absolute  power,  and  the 
States  were  watched  until  the  voters  were  willing  to 
subscribe  to  all  the  conditions  imposed  by  Congress — 
chiefly  concerning  the  status  of  the  negro.  The  South 
ern  States  were  playthings  in  the  hands  of  tempera 
ment;  they  were  laid  bare  to  the  unscrupulousness  of 
profit-hunters,  who  worked  upon  the  negro's  lust,  even 
as  they  seized  the  negro's  vote  for  personal  ends. 

To  add  to  these  overbearing  methods,  which  were 
largely  in  accord  with  Stevens'  dealing  with  rebellion 
as  a  condition  outside  of  constitutional  consideration, 
the  actual  insignia  of  war  was  still  retained  in  the 
South,  as  a  menace  and  as  token  of  aggressive  disposi 
tion.  The  presence  of  troops,  the  denial  of  represen 
tation,  the  unstable  authority  of  law,  the  establishment 
of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau,  and  the  amendment  of  the 


422    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

Constitution,  were  the  trials  to  which  the  South  was 
subjected,  yet  through  it  all  there  were  efforts  made 
to  gain  a  steady  footing,  to  take  up  the  plow  in  the 
furrow  and  to  develop  the  industrial  resources  of  the 
land.  The  effect  of  reconstruction  on  the  white  was 
retarding;  the  negroes  were  becoming  more  and  more 
dissatisfied,  since  the  Union  "Loyal"  League  kept 
them  stirred  up  with  false  hopes  and  promises. 

The  Freedmen's  Bureau  was  a  constant  reminder  to 
the  negro  that  he  was  a  ward  of  the  nation ;  however 
unwise  the  ideas  underlying  its  establishment,  Gen 
eral  O.  O.  Howard  was  not  to  blame  for  the  in 
effectiveness  of  its  organization  in  bringing  about  an 
adjustment  of  the  negro's  suffrage;  the  only  positive 
worth  it  exhibited  was  in  the  matter  of  education, 
where  it  helped  to  familiarize  the  black  population  with 
the  free  school  system.  In  his  pessimistic  manner, 
bordering  on  sullen  aggressiveness,  DuBois  blames  the 
Freedmen's  Bureau  for  present  disparities  in  the  negro's 
position ;  he  discounts  every  act  of  forbearance  on  the 
part  of  the  South ;  every  legislative  move,  carried 
through  the  will  of  the  Southern  white  vote,  to  give 
the  black  man  a  fair  chance;  and,  moreover,  he 
wrongly  attributes  to  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  the  rec 
ognition  in  the  South  of  free  labor,  whereby  the  negro 
might  in  the  future  become  "  peasant  proprietor."  Tn 
fact,  however  true  DuBois'  arguments  proving  the  in 
adequacy  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau,  his  bitter  criti 
cism  against  the  failure  of  the  Government  to  give  the 
negro  a  sustenance,  which  he  was  not  willing  to  earn, 
only  illustrates  the  evil  effects  of  paternalism — even 
upon  an  exceptional  black  man,  so  far  educated  beyond 
the  realization  of  his  race  needs  that  his  criticism  fails 
practically  to  aid  in  the  immediate  solution.  Where 
the  nation  was  culpable — if  it  is  possible  to  consider 
Reconstruction  as  anything  more  than  partisan  war 
fare — was  in  allowing  the  Freedmen's  Savings  Bank  to 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  423 

dupe  negro  thrift  in  its  incipiency — a  deception  from 
which  the  black  laborer  recovered  only  after  a  long 
period  of  distrust. 

After  all,  the  literary  significance  of  Reconstruction 
is  to  be  found  in  the  special  details  which,  on  the  one 
hand,  indicate  popular  feeling,  and,  on  the  other,  de 
termine  the  special  attitude  of  the  leaders  in  negro 
thought.  We  shall  find,  in  an  examination  of  Wash 
ington  and  DuBois,  much  data  that  bear  upon  church 
readjustment  and  education — these  factors  being  the 
two  points  most  concerned  in  the  negro's  qualifying 
for  citizenship.  In  every  recent  development  of  the 
freedman,  it  is  necessary  to  look  into  Reconstruction 
for  the  commencement  of  those  determined  campaigns 
which  later  permanently  modified  Southern  popular 
opinion. 

The  history  of  education  in  the  South  after  the 
Civil  War  is  far  from  being  so  discouraging  as  Du 
Bois  would  have  one  believe.  If  the  Southern  whites 
objected  to  Reconstruction  methods  of  instruction,  it 
was  because  the  illiterate  men,  placed  at  the  head  of 
affairs,  as  well  as  such  special  institutions  as  the  Freed- 
men's  Bureau  and  the  partisan  Aid  Societies,  dis 
tributed  histories  with  a  Northern  bias,  or  else  gave 
special  fanatical  orders  to  the  teachers  sent  South  on 
a  definite  narrow  mission.  School-books  published  in 
New  York  were  for  a  long  while  held  in  distrust,  and 
whenever  possible  were  supplanted  by  texts  edited  with 
particular  regard  for  the  sensibilities  of  the  South. 
Yet  the  freedmen's  spirit  permeated  and  persisted  for 
some  time  in  the  South. 

For  this  reason,  prejudice  against  negro  education 
was  difficult  to  circumvent.  Nevertheless,  the  Southern 
people  recognized  the  necessity  for  education  of  a  cer 
tain  kind;  it  was  the  excesses  to  which  the  former 
slave  went  in  his  desire  for  "book-learning"  that 
made  the  white  of  the  South  believe  that,  thus  par- 


424    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

tially  educated,  thus  equipped  with  mental  frills 
fitting  him  for  no  useful  position  in  the  economic 
adjustment,  which  was  the  same  as  industrial  recon 
struction,  the  educated  negro  was  a  dangerous  negro. 
In  Dr.  Fleming's  poignant  thesis  on  Alabama,  there 
are  a  number  of  pictures  sketched  of  the  crass  igno 
rance  of  school  officials  regulating  affairs.  After  all,  the 
Southerners  were  themselves  the  ones  to  have  been 
placed  in  local  control  by  the  Government ;  it  was  use 
less  to  expect  a  defeated  community  to  send  its  sons 
to  universities  presided  over  by  Northern  preachers, 
arrogant  and  inimical.  Such  defiance  only  spurred  the 
Ku  Klux  Klan  to  more  frequent  activity.  In  the  re 
sumption  of  duties,  nevertheless,  the  South  knew  that 
education  must  be  had,  but  not  from  the  Northern 
teacher  of  the  type  common  in  those  early  days. 

How  to  solve  that  question  was  a  paramount  con 
sideration  ;  in  Alabama,  for  instance,  some  of  the  most 
prominent  citizens  recognized  that  if  education  were 
not  given  as  an  alternative  for  the  opposing  forces  of 
slavery,  the  negro  would  quickly  degenerate  into  his 
tribal  habits.  Col.  Jeff  Faulkner  was  strong  in  recom 
mending  negro  education,  and  so  that  it  would  be  of 
the  proper  sort,  he  advised  Southern  women  to  assume 
control;  The  Montgomery  Advertiser,  as  early  as 
July,  1866,  went  further,  and  suggested  that  disabled 
soldiers  assume  the  task  of  teachers. 

In  this  unsettled  state,  the  position  of  the  negro  was 
a  tragic  one ;  he  did  not  know  the  real  meaning  of  his 
freedom ;  he  was  far  from  able  to  think  for  himself. 
His  emotional  side  prompted  him  to  seek  education  so 
that  he  might  read  the  Bible ;  his  new-made  "  friends/* 
among  assurances  held  forth  to  him,  promised  him 
that  the  three  R's  would  give  him  quicker  opportunity 
to  become  preacher,  teacher,  and  representative  in 
Congress.  The  presence  of  the  Northern  school  teach 
ers  did  not  allay  doubt  and  mistrust ;  no  matter  how 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  425 

earnest  they  might  be,  their  ardor  was  misdirected  be 
cause  of  mistaken  enthusiasm.  In  addition  to  this, 
they  were  not  always  of  good  character.  But  it  made 
no  difference  to  the  Southern  household  what  their 
social  status  was,  the  Northern  teachers  came  on  a 
footing  of  equality  with  the  negro,  and  so  they  were 
ostracized  by  the  whites.  The  result  was  that  im 
morality  sprang  into  existence,  and  the  Ku  Klnx  Klan 
had  added  work  to  do, — warning  in  directions  where 
irregular  conduct  between  the  two  races  became  fre 
quent. 

These  were  actual  conditions,  not  false  pictures  for 
the  sake  of  partisan  malice;  upon  their  existence  de 
veloped  the  popular  feeling  in  the  South.  The  de 
feated  section  was  overrun  by  forces  which  tried  to 
disintegrate,  of  a  sudden,  the  conservatism  which  ex 
cluded  the  Northerner  from  the  innermost  circle  where 
no  war  condition  could  ever  enter.  The  Confederate 
kept  his  parole,  even  though  he  was  dragged  precipi 
tately  before  commissions,  and  was  called  to  answer 
questions  for  investigators  whom  he  knew  to  be  inim 
ical  to  the  best  interests  of  the  South.  He  moved 
within  an  atmosphere  of  constant  threat,  his 
very  property  remaining  insecure;  his  word  was 
discounted,  when  weighed  with  that  of  the  "  scala 
wag"  who  would  have  given  his  soul  for  the 
negro  vote  and  for  political  preferment.  Over 
and  over  again,  he  was  called  upon  to  take  his 
oath  of  allegiance,  and  even  that  would  not  insure 
him  from  indignity.  Worse  still  was  the  soldiers' 
willful  insult  of  Southern  women,  forcing  them 
from  the  sidewalk,  jeering  in  their  presence,  and  com 
mitting  petty,  annoyances  in  revenge  for  social  ostra 
cism  which  their  acts  only  the  more  necessitated. 
Whatever  the  violations  which  later  developed  from 
the  Ku  Klux  Klan,  it  will  be  seen  that  at  times  the 
secret  orders  had  cause  to  act.  The  whole  atmosphere 


426    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

was  one  of  intense  strain — a  mixture  of  unreasonable 
ness,  sensitiveness,  and  forbearance.  As  one  authority 
has  aptly  said,  condemn  as  you  will  the  Ku  Klux  Klan 
for  its  lawlessness,  when  the  time  came  to  examine  its 
leaders,  the  whole  nature  of  the  negro  government — 
its  shameful  mismanagement  under  "carpet-bag" 
rule — did  much  to  awaken  the  conscience  of  the  best 
side  of  Northern  life.  Then  began  the  undermining 
of  Reconstruction  methods. 


ii 

No  sooner  was  the  war  at  an  end  than  the  South 
erner  became  aware  of  his  responsibility.  Unlike  the 
Northern  theorist,  who  hoped  by  law  to  settle  the  prob 
lem  of  race  in  a  day,  the  former  master  knew  that  the 
forces  were  deeper  than  mere  political  adjustment; 
that  an  inferior  race,  living  in  the  midst  of  a  stronger 
group,  would  necessarily  act  as  a  counter-force  if  it 
were  not  made  capable  of  meeting  new  conditions.  Re 
construction  had,  to  an  extent,  cultivated  in  the  South 
a  feeling  of  distrust  as  regards  the  educated  negro, 
but  the  high  consciousness  of  the  Southern  people, — so 
well  epitomized  in  the  clear,  philosophic  view  of  Mr. 
Edgar  Gardner  Murphy, — began  to  unfold  as  early  as 
1865 ;  and  now,  education  has  become  the  key-note  to 
Southern  progress,  as  a  means,  not  only  of  assuring 
the  economic  and  social  usefulness  of  the  negro,  but 
of  checking  whatever  disintegrating  forces  were  exist 
ent  among  the  whites  at  the  close  of  the  war. 

This  sense  of  duty  was  a  great  factor  in  the  re- 
establishment  of  life;  the  negro  was  made  helpless 
by  the  sudden  removal  of  slavery,  and  the  burden, 
however  heavy,  must  be  met  The  law,  in  its  exercise, 
had  to  recognize  the  black  man's  right  to  its  just 
enactment ;  in  all  dealings  with  the  negro,  the  economic 
basis  was  different — there  must  be  fair  relation  between 
the  races,  even  though,  by  the  removal  of  the  bonds,  a 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  427 

greater  chasm  was  made  for  the  surer  protection  of 
the  whites.  The  problem  demanded  the  proof  of  good 
faith;  it  emphasized  the  hope  that  by  his  labor  the 
negro  would  assure  for  himself  his  economic  position. 
From  1865  to  1870,  there  was  a  keen  willingness  on 
the  part  of  Southern  people  to  forward  the  situation; 
Northern  zealots  set  back  the  impulse  for  an  im 
mediate  facing  of  facts,  yet  they  could  not  entirely 
destroy,  even  though  they  did  delay,  such  catholic 
sentiments  as  Judge  Clayton  of  Alabama  expressed, 
when  charging  a  jury  in  September,  1866;  he  was 
shortly  after  disfranchised  and  kept  from  office  until 
1874. 

It  is  therefore  evident  that  among  the  largest 
social  forces  which  are  most  active  in  the  South  to 
day,  the  education  of  the  negro  and  of  the  poor  white 
demands  most  careful  examination.  Perhaps  the 
consideration  of  illiteracy,  until  very  recent  years,  has 
wrongly  been  confined  to  the  black  man;  philanthropy 
has  been  turned  in  that  direction,  as  the  consequence 
of  an  over-sentimental  attitude  toward  the  negro.  But 
now  the  South's  fight  against  illiteracy  is  a  general 
struggle  for  the  good  of  society,  and,  as  the  years 
advance,  and  the  national  view  becomes  more  evident 
to  the  whole  people  of  the  United  States,  the  check 
ing  of  illiteracy  is  not  only  a  necessity  to  the  section, 
but  the  obligation  becomes  greater  and  affects  the 
nation  as  a  whole. 

The  Peabody  Education  Fund  was  managed  in  that 
spirit  from  the  beginning;  the  South  was  selected  as 
the  field  most  urgently  needful  of  support  when,  on 
October  3,  1866,  the  great  Baltimore  philanthropist 
conceived  his  scheme.  It  was  no  sectional  or  conde 
scending  spirit  which  prompted  Peabody;  he  had 
toured  the  South  in  1857;  his  first  million  dol 
lars  was  handed  to  a  board  "for  the  promotion  and 
encouragement  of  intellectual,  moral,  or  industrial 
education  among  the  young  of  the  more  destitute  por- 


428     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

tion  of  the  Southern  and  Southwestern  States  of  our 
Union."  When  his  second  donation  was  bestowed  in 
1869,  he  wrote  that  it  was  offered  "to  the  suffering- 
South  for  the  good  of  the  whole  country."  Dr.  Barnas 
Sears  (1802-1880),  of  Brown  University,  was  elected 
first  agent  of  the  Fund. 

In  1869,  Sears  wrote  from  New  Orleans: 
"  I  will  now  state  our  position,  which  is  perfectly 
well  known.  .  .  .  We  assume  no  control  whatever 
over  the  arrangement  of  the  schools  to  which  assistance 
is  accorded.  We  have  nothing  to  do  with  any  party 
questions  or  with  the  policy  pursued  by  municipal  or 
State  authorities.  We  only  wish  to  aid  in  the  work  of 
universal  education.  If  separate  schools  are  provided 
for  the  two  races,  and  both  of  them  are  pleased  with 
the  arrangement,  we  can  have  no  embarrassment  in 
co-operating  with  the  State  authorities.  If  the  law 
requires  mixed  schools,  and  the  children,  whether 
white  or  black,  generally  attend  them,  we  shall  have 
no  difficulty  in  our  work.  But  if  the  State  supports 
only  mixed  schools,  and  the  white  children  do  not 
attend  them,  we  should  naturally  aid,  not  the  colored 
children,  who  enjoy,  exclusively,  the  benefit  of  the  pub 
lic  school  money,  but  the  white  children  who  are  left 
to  grow  up  in  ignorance.  If  it  be  said  that  the  white 
children  ought  to  attend  the  mixed  schools,  and  that 
it  is  their  own  fault,  or  that  of  their  parents,  if  they 
do  not,  we  reply  that  we  are  not  called  on  to  pronounce 
judgment  on  that  subject.  Let  the  people  themselves 
settle  that  question.  .  .  .  Our  proper  business  is  to 
encourage  universal  education ;  not  to  meddle  with  any 
party  question,  nor  to  encourage  or  discourage  any 
political  body." 

Such  a  report  presaged  the  results  of  a  fair-minded 
investigation;  Sears  transferred  his  citizenship  to  Vir 
ginia,  and  his  far-seeing  wisdom  saved  the  Fund  from 
the  schemes  of  individuals,  denominations  and  private 


THOMAS    NELSON    PAGE. 
87  courtesy  of  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  429 

corporations;  his  aim  was  civic  in  its  widest  sense. 
This  is  all  the  more  remarkable  since  he  was  a  theolo 
gian  of  New  England  training. 

The  common  school  was  now  furthered  to  a  re 
markable  degree.  Such  unthinking  enthusiasts  as  Mr. 
Cable,  two  decades  later,  might  resent  the  line  of  dis 
tinction  drawn  in  the  South  between  whites  and  blacks, 
the  marks  of  discrimination  in  the  ordinary  affairs  of 
the  street ;  but  the  Peabody  Board,  in  the  midst  of  Re 
construction  evils,  was  sufficiently  profound  in  wisdom 
and  sane  in  policy  to  labor  in  the  Southern  States, 
along  lines  "  adapted  to  their  peculiar  condition  of  in 
habitancy  by  two  races,  distinct  in  origin,  color,  his 
tory,  separated  by  an  impassable  chasm,  and  yet  pre 
destined  to  continue  joint  occupancy  of  the  same  ter 
ritory."  No  matter  how  unbiased  Sears'  intentions  to 
act  fairly,  he  was  questioned  and  doubted  and  sub 
jected  to  open  attack  from  Sumner  and  Garrison,  who 
accused  him  of  Southern  partiality.  The  whole  matter 
culminated  in  the  question  of  mixed  schools  which  had 
been  forced  upon  Louisiana  and  South  Carolina — a 
question  which,  had  it  been  successfully  legislated  in 
Congress,  would  have  dealt  an  overpowering  blow  to 
the  cause  of  common  school  education  in  the  South. 

When  Sears  died,  in  1880,  his  daughter  continued 
his  activity  until  the  meeting  of  the  Board ;  then,  dur 
ing  February,  1881,  J.  L.  M.  Curry  received  the 
appointment  of  general  agent,  and  he  developed  the 
work,  until  his  death  in  1903.  In  his  writing  and  in 
his  speeches,  which  were  delivered  before  so  many 
legislatures,  Curry  insisted  upon  the  idea  of  connect 
ing  education  with  the  development  of  Southern  indus 
tries  ;  through  prosperity  comes  the  natural  desire  for 
learning,  and  the  healthy  willing  support  of  schools 
is  dependent  upon  the  general  social  and  economic 
welfare.  This  emphasis  only  served  to  bring  into 
more  prominence  the  recognized  intention  of  the  Pea- 


430    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

body  Fund  to  offer  special  encouragement  to  Normal 
institutions,  and  to  pay  special  attention  to  the  pro 
fessional  training  of  teachers.  Thus,  Booker  T. 
Washington's  endeavors  had  other  precedence  than 
General  Armstrong  and  the  Hampton  Institute. 

Political  discrimination  was  often  attempted  during 
the  development  of  the  common  school  idea,  but  when 
put  to  the  Supreme  Court  test,  it  did  not  long  stand 
the  force  of  argument.  Had  the  burden  of  taxation 
fallen  on  each  class  educated,  and  limited  in  its  appor 
tionment  to  that  discrimination,  the  negro  would  have 
fared  ill.  But  the  Southern  whites  have  borne  the  ad 
ditional  expense,  knowing  that  otherwise  the  problem 
would  never  be  solved. 

A  wave  of  philanthropy  passed  over  the  country, 
not  always  wise  in  its  bestowal,  but  nevertheless  in 
dicative  of  a  right  and  worthy  impulse.  In  1882, 
John  F.  Slater  bequeathed  one  million  dollars  for  the 
special  benefit  of  negroes,  a  fund  duplicated  in  1908 
by  Miss  Anna  T.  Jeanes,  who  at  several  times  had 
assisted  Frissell  of  Hampton  and  Washington  of 
Tuskegee,  and  who,  by  her  larger  act,  indicated  her 
special  interest  in  the  negro  rural  school.  The  ex 
ample  of  Peabody,  likewise,  inspired  the  generosity  of 
Tulane,  who  in  New  Orleans  gave  money  for  intellect 
ual,  moral,  and  industrial  education, — Anthony  J. 
Drexel  doing  the  same  in  Philadelphia. 

It  is  necessary  thus  to  emphasize  the  educational 
regeneration  of  the  South,  since  it  will  be  seen  that 
at  the  present  time  some  of  the  most  significant  writ 
ing  is  being  done  along  the  lines  here  indicated. 
Founded  upon  a  social  obligation,  it  has  called  into 
play  some  of  the  keenest  thinking,  and,  by  its  general 
acceptance,  it  is  clearly  indicative  of  the  democratiza 
tion  of  the  Southern  people,  and  of  their  broader  point 
of  view.  Yet,  to  a  certain  extent,  the  practical  necessi 
ties  of  education  have  limited  Southern  thought  as 


THE   NEW   SOUTH  431 

severely  as  the  consideration  of  slavery  did  before  it. 
No  atmosphere  has  been  created  for  the  encourage 
ment  of  pure  imagination,  but  all  energy  is  being  cen 
tered  upon  self-examination.  This,  in  a  way,  is  aiding 
in  that  great  change  through  which  the  South  has 
to  go  as  it  passes  from  an  agricultural  to  a  manufac 
turing  people,  and  is  developing  a  critical  sense  out 
of  which  future  virility  and  originality  may  come. 

There  is  no  great  writing  being  done  in  the  South 
to-day,  no  exceptional  literature.  From  such  a  state 
ment  we  have  no  right  to  believe  that  what  is  being  done 
is  not  as  excellent  as  the  average  elsewhere,  and  equally 
as  holding  in  its  general  interest.  The  sense  of  local 
ity,  the  new  historic  impulse,  and  the  style  of  psycho 
logical  analysis,  have  made  the  fiction  less  broadly  hu 
morous,  and  less  melodramatic.  But  the  demands 
upon  the  Southerner's  ingenuity  have  been  practical  in 
meeting  immediate  issues,  and  though,  since  1901, 
when  the  Southern  Education  Board  was  founded, 
with  the  energy  and  interest  of  Robert  C.  Ogden  be 
hind  it,  the  conferences  have  been  concerned  with 
social  and  economic  investigations,  the  spirit  has  been 
actuated  by  the  highest  ideals  and  by  broad-minded 
ness.  The  quality  of  social  criticism,  therefore,  will 
be  found  to  be  of  exceptional  constructive  force;  if  it 
has  not  the  wide  appeal  it  should  have,  the  reason  may 
be  found  in  the  fact  that  as  yet  sociology  is  not  of  gen 
eral  educational  interest  in  the  South.  Curry's  popu 
larity  was  due  very  largely  to  the  manner  of  his  ex 
position,  for  he  resorted  to  the  orator's  method ;  many 
more  people  were  willing  to  listen  to  him  than  to  read 
him. 

The  negro  question  and  the  problem  of  education 
are  relative  considerations;  what  is  written  to-day  is 
subject  to  change  to-morrow;  the  body  of  literature 
which  has  grown  up  around  it,  is  never  constant;  in 
the  bulk  it  is  indicative  of  a  stage  in  the  solution. 


432    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

No  book,  no  law  will  bring  the  adjustment  about;  the 
matter  lies  wholly  in  the  temper  and  character  of  the 
people,  being  slowly  but  surely  modified  by  condition. 
Perhaps  the  acutest  position  of  the  white  argument  is 
to  be  had  in  Mr.  Murphy,  though  his  philosophic  view 
restricts  his  wide  appeal.  The  contributions  made  by 
the  negro  are  significant  as  showing  three  tendencies 
of  thought,  but  in  none  of  them  do  we  obtain  the  right 
ideal  of  leadership  or  of  citizenship.  So  persistent 
has  been  the  emphasis  upon  the  white  man's  obligation 
to  the  negro,  that  the  negro  has  not  yet  become  aware 
of  how  great  an  obligation  he  owes  to  a  superior  race, 
which  is  expending  so  much  of  energy  and  substance 
for  the  benefit  oi  all  concerned. 


in 

Curry  (1825-1903),  when  he  succeeded  Haygood 
as  general  agent  for  the  Slater  Fund,  was  largely  in 
strumental  in  developing  the  national  view  of  the 
negro  question.  Ever  since  his  first  endeavors  in  1865, 
the  whole  gravity  of  the  situation  has  been  in  the 
matter  of  adjustment,  of  assuaging  that  irritant  to 
ward  race  antagonism  which  is  found  in  the  close 
association  of  two  distinct  peoples,  whose  integrity 
must  be  maintained  if  each  is  to  exist  and  increase  in 
betterment.  What  is  now  necessary  is  to  destroy 
race  prejudice  by  increasing  the  efficiency  of  the 
weaker,  by  establishing  it  upon  sound  economic  foot 
ing,  by  developing  its  own  responsibility  in  the  matter 
of  law  and  order,  by  allowing  it  a  share  in  those  civic 
activities  which  conduce  to  the  maintenance  of  that 
law  and  order,  by  making  it  aware  of  an  ideal  of  man 
hood  among  its  kind  which  need  not  go  outside  the 
race  for  its  highest  development,  and  by  condemning 
its  members  for  those  moral  lapses  which  are  due  to 
innate  weakness  as  well  as  to  conditions  which  sur- 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  433 

round  them.  With  Mr.  Murphy,  we  believe  that 
Professor  Royce,  in  his  book  on  "  Race  Questions," 
falsely  estimated  the  South's  position  in  this  matter 
of  race  prejudice;  it  is  not  founded  upon  superficial 
antipathies,  nor  yet  upon  inherited  beliefs,  but  upon 
fundamental  structural  difference  underlying  the 
whole  theory  of  evolution  and  the  survival  of  stronger 
elements.  It  is  this  acknowledgment  which  makes 
Mr.  Murphy's  "  The  Basis  of  Ascendancy  "  so  poig 
nant  for  the  present  generation  of  social  students. 

One  does  not  have  to  wait  for  a  new  census  to  speak 
in  general  terms  of  the  advance  of  free  schools  and 
universal  education  in  the  South ;  but  there  is  no  doubt 
that  the  new  statistics  will  convey  a  significant  mes 
sage  regarding  the  decrease  of  illiteracy  among  blacks 
and  whites  in  the  Southern  States.  The  measure  in 
round  numbers  of  the  improved  condition  will  denote 
the  force  of  moral  enthusiasm  with  which  the  people 
have  faced  the  problem.  Save  for  the  three  years  that 
Curry  was  in  Spain  (when  Samuel  A.  Green  took  his 
place,  1885-1888),  he  had  an  uninterrupted  oppor 
tunity  of  noting  how  the  deluding  promises  offered 
the  emancipated  blacks  were  shifted  from  useless 
knowledge  to  serviceable  training  which  fitted  their 
special  needs.  He  saw  the  New  South  rise  out  of  the 
ruins,  and  pass  through  exacting  times,  and  while  in 
his  fairness  of  view  he  recognized  that  "  no  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line  runs  through  the  individual  or  the  aggre 
gate  human  mind  of  this  country,"  he  saw  also  that 
education  must  be  fitted  to  aptitude,  and  that  the  cul 
tural  phase  could  not  be  ushered  in  until  the  soil  was 
prepared  for  it. 

Curry's  earliest  criticism  was  that  in  the  South  there 
was  not  "  a  proper  appreciation  of  the  science  of  edu 
cation";  what  was  to  be  greatly  desired  was  the  re 
moval  of  pedagogy  from  the  directive  influence  of  the 
popular  vote.  But  though  it  was  generally  conceded 


434     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

by  Curry  that  the  Government  should  render  assist 
ance,  it  was  soon  recognized  that  each  State  should 
meet  its  own  situation.  Public  opinion  had  to  be  roused, 
prejudices  had  to  be  overcome.  History  records  how 
much  self-sacrifice  was  shown  by  the  States,  even 
though  it  was  felt  that  it  would  take  more  than  the 
South  could  give  for  counteracting  conditions. 

The  wisdom  of  men  like  Curry  counted  for  much 
at  such  a  special  time  as  that  of  which  we  write;  they 
saw  what  the  real,  deep  menace  to  the  future  of  the 
South  really  was;  they  saw  the  negro's  dire  lack  of 
industrial  preparation,  and  they  discouraged  other 
remedies.  They  saw  how  wanting  the  black  race  was 
in  permanent  character,  and  so  they  believed  that 
until  this  was  acquired,  liberty  should  be  restricted. 

For  the  cause,  Curry  devoted  a  large  part  of  his 
life,  and  when  he  died  the  press  rightly  called  his 
labors  a  national  service.  The  broad  view  of  training 
for  the  most  efficient  citizenship  was  uppermost  in 
Curry's  thoughts;  he  gave  no  attention  to  personal 
benefit  when  he  worked — his  eye  was  upon  the  greatest 
good  for  the  greatest  numbers.  Dr.  Alderman  points 
to  such  dedication  as  an  example  of  "  unpurchasable  " 
zeal  which  the  South  exerted  whenever  national  ques 
tions  were  offered  for  solution.  And  so  we  realize 
what  Curry's  energy  meant  in  the  extension  of  the 
South's  destiny,  when  we  hear  Alderman  say :  "  The 
chief  work  then  of  this  noble  life  was  to  develop  an 
irresistible  public  opinion  in  a  democracy  for  the 
accomplishment  of  permanent  public  ends.  In  short, 
through  such  work  as  his  in  one  generation  of  gripn 
purpose  and  intellectual  audacity,  the  South  has  lost 
its  economic  distinctness  and  has  become  a  part  of 
American  life  and  American  destiny."  Through  him 
we  fully  understand  what  initiative  will  do  in  establish 
ing  permanent  good. 

If  we  take  such  a  book  as  Mr.  Cable's  "  The  Silent 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  435 

South/'  and  recollect  that,  when  it  was  written  in  1885, 
the  negro  question  in  its  newer  aspects  had  scarcely 
been  discussed,  it  is  evident  how  quickly  and  bitterly 
he  might  be  rated  by  the  Southern  people.  But  his 
own  personal  indignation  over  the  treatment  of  the 
negro  is  not  the  matter  most  to  be  condemned ;  it  is  his 
manner  of  approach  on  one  hand,  and  his  blindness  on 
the  other,  to  the  needs  of  the  situation  as  it  then  pre 
sented  itself.  The  promises  held  forth  by  the  amend 
ments  to  the  Constitution  were  just  as  illusive  as  the 
general  assertions  uttered  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence  ;  human  equity  should  always  be  practiced  to 
ward  the  negro,  but  he  should  be  prepared  for  the 
proper  enjoyment  of  those  privileges  which  freedom  be 
stows  on  the  individual.  The  negro  had  to  prove  him 
self  part  of  the  new  regime,  and  with  the  aid  of  the 
white  man  he  was  to  raise  himself  above  and  beyond 
that  alien  position  where  he  was  marked  by  his  color, 
and  where  his  inferiority  was  made  more  evident  by 
his  incapacity  in  the  civic  body. 

True  that  the  white  man  had  to  be  schooled  into 
the  acceptance  of  this  new  order  of  things.  The  dis 
cussion  of  liberty  in  the  abstract  is  far  different  from 
its  bestowal  in  the  concrete,  and  to  reverse  the  feelings 
of  human  nature  takes  long  years  of  experience.  It  is 
this  experience  which  separates  the  scattered  half- 
truths  of  the  zealous  Mr.  Cable  from  Mr.  Murphy's 
whole  truths  in  "  The  Present  South,"  one  of  the  most 
fair-minded  expositions  of  the  ways  and  means  in 
the  South.  Its  statistics  may  vary,  but  the  inspira 
tion  is  sound  and  does  historic  justice  to  the  subject. 

Mr.  Cable  rightly  affirmed  that  slavery  bestowed 
upon  the  negro  sufficient  civilization  to  make  him 
worthy  of  freedom,  but  he  was  wrong  in  arguing  that 
any  act  of  freedom  could  ever  recognize  that  all  are 
equally  entitled  to  that  freedom.  The  South  has  com 
mitted  errors  against  the  negro  in  the  courts,  but  the 


436    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

better  thought  in  the  South  has  attempted  to  alter 
those  inequalities  which  are  unfair  to  the  negro,  when 
ever  he  proves  by  his  moral  and  practical  stability  that 
he  is  worthy  of  the  law's  full  protection.  Public  priv 
ilege  suddenly  poured  upon  the  negro  was  not  what 
was  wanted  at  the  time  Mr.  Cable  wrote,  though  in 
his  demand  for  this  recognition  he  was  tainted  by  the 
abolition  spirit  which  sought  immediate  results,  no 
matter  what  the  conditions.  No  doubt  the  South  has 
suffered  in  moral  sensibility  through  the  very  slowness 
with  which  it  has  come  to  grant  negroes  the  privileges 
of  the  freedman.  But  race  instinct  is  not  "  twaddle  " 
when  it  involves  the  preservation  of  race  individuality, 
and,  as  Mr.  Harben  tries  to  prove  in  "  The  Georgians," 
no  solution  will  ever  be  reached  where  the  relinquish- 
ment  of  that  integrity  is  demanded. 

Mr.  Cable's  arguments  are  written  from  a  North 
ampton,  Massachusetts,  point  of  view;  they  contain 
truths,  but  not  truth  based  on  the  recognition  of  de 
fects  on  both  sides  of  the  dividing  line.  The  white 
man  is  now  awake  to  the  necessity  for  bestowing  civil 
rights  fairly,  but  he  still  holds  to  that  social  right 
which  is  the  individual  right  as  well.  In  a  futile  at 
tempt  to  keep  these  two  considerations  separate,  Mr. 
Cable  involved  them  in  an  argument  based  on  general 
statements  rather  than  on  close  examination;  he  was 
at  the  time  of  writing  possessed  of  the  one  idea  of  in 
termingling  the  races  in  the  daily  conduct  of  affairs,  as 
though  civil  liberty  could  not  exist  without  that.  But 
Mr.  Cable  scarcely  touched  upon  the  fitness  of  the 
negroes  for  all  those  privileges  he  would  bestow  on 
them.  He  was  on  much  more  tenable  ground  when 
he  argued  against  the  Convict  Lease  System. 

Such  a  man  as  Edgar  Gardner  Murphy  represents 
a  different  spirit — one  to  reflect  abiding  credit  on  the 
South.  For  he  is  fearless  in  his  examination  of  causes 
and  effects ;  he  maintains  an  equal  balance  between  his- 


From  Stereograph,  copyright  l'JU6,  by  Underwood  &  Underwood,  X. 


JOEL    CHANDLER    HARRIS. 

Photographed  in  his  home  in  West  End,  Atlanta,  Qa.,  at  the  age  of  fifty-eight.     According 
lie  old  custom  still  existing  among  many  Southern  farmers,  Mr.  Harris  always  wears  his  hat 


toth 

in  the  house. 


OFTHE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 

^0«M\^ 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  437 

tory  and  the  moment ;  he  measures  statistics  by  human 
standards,  believing  that  a  civilization  not  only  has  an 
outward  existence  expressed  by  a  formula,  but  an  in 
ward  basis  which  governs  numbers.  His  is,  conscien 
tiously  and  consistently,  a  national  view,  reached 
through  acceptance  of  much  that  has  been  created  by 
sectional  bequeathment.  He  is  as  philosophical  in  his 
arguments  respecting  the  differences  between  the  con 
cepts  of  Nation  and  of  Federal  Government,  as  Jeffer 
son  was  in  his  discussion  of  the  functions  of  the  State. 
Mr.  Murphy  has  always  stood  for  the  inviolable  right 
of  the  State  to  develop  citizenship  for  the  good  of  the 
nation ;  he  has  always  believed  Federal  legislation  to  be 
operative  in  those  relationships  which  went  outside  the 
borders  of  the  separate  States.  His  whole  argument 
for  State  regulation  of  child  labor,  when  Beveridge 
of  Indiana  sought  for  Federal  control,  was  based  on 
his  belief  in  the  obligation  of  the  State  in  the  task 
of  enriching  the  concept  of  national  existence.  What 
ever  his  consideration,  Mr.  Murphy's  ultimate  argu 
ment  is  for  full  meeting  of  the  problem  of  "unde 
veloped  citizenship."  And  we  find  him  saying :  "  Edu 
cation,  all  education,  is  but  philanthropy;  and  philan 
thropy  is  but  humanity  believing  in  itself  and  in  its 
God." 

"The  Present  South,"  in  its  statistical  phase,  will 
have  to  be  read  anew  after  the  issue  of  the  census  of 
1910;  but  this  will  not  any  the  more  take  from  it  the 
just  expression  of  how  much  constructive  energy  the 
South  has  been  exerting.  The  census  will  indicate  the 
fruits  of  a  labor  which  have  largely  been  cultivated  by 
such  earnestness  as  Mr.  Murphy  has  displayed  in  his 
books.  Not  only  that,  but  the  optimism  which  Mr. 
Murphy  has  expressed  in  the  face  of  counter  elements, 
is  only  another  manifestation  of  the  idealism  which  in 
the  South  is  reaping  practical  results.  For  the  "  igno 
rant  and  ineffective  life  "  is  dangerous  in  two  direc- 


438    THE  LITERATURE  OF   THE  SOUTH 

tions;  locally  it  stunts  development  of  the  immediate 
social  group,  nationally  it  retards  the  full  expression 
of  manhood.  Therefore,  when  we  discuss  Culture  and 
Democracy,  it  is,  according  to  Mr.  Murphy,  the 
stronger  race  which  must  improve  the  undeveloped 
forces  of  its  kind.  "  The  Present  South "  soundly 
develops  the  conviction  that  the  negro  problem  is  but 
one  among  other  important  phases  of  Southern  life 
— a  life  in  which  the  white  man  is  the  dominant  fac 
tor. 

There  is  logical  development  to  Mr.  Murphy's 
thought;  "The  Basis  of  Ascendancy"  is  a  natural 
outcome  of  a  practical  discussion  of  conditions;  we 
obtain  an  eloquent  exposition  of  those  subtle  inter 
relations  which,  civically  acting  together,  seem  to  raise 
both  races  at  the  same  time,  for  the  safety  of  the 
stronger.  The  South  no  longer  believes  in  repression, 
nor  in  the  inability  of  the  negro  to  realize  himself. 
Such  a  work  as  "  The  Basis  of  Ascendancy  "  needs 
acute  analysis;  it  suggests  a  wide  field  of  serviceable 
speculation,  based  upon  full  understanding  of  social, 
political  and  economic  conditions. 

Nevertheless,  this  maintaining  of  the  ascendancy 
is  not  a  passive  matter;  while  it  recognizes  the  superi 
ority  of  the  white  race  in  the  matter  of  self-develop 
ment,  the  matter  of  color  alone  will  not  save  it  from 
deterioration  if  dead  weight  is  allowed  to  increase,  if 
it  is  not  constantly  reinforced  by  new  blood  such  as 
is  to  be  found  in  the  mountain  regions  among  the 
poor  whites.  Mr.  Walter  H.  Page,  a  North  Caro 
linian  by  birth,  has  done  much  in  writing  and  in  ad 
dresses  to  inculcate  a  belief  in  this  necessity,  and  the 
sum  total  of  his  arguments  is  expressed  in  such  terse 
conviction  as  that  "the  security  and  the  soundness  of 
the  whole  body  are  measured  at  last  by  the  condition 
of  its  weakest  part."  Social  progress  depends  upon 
the  efficient  manner  in  which  the  latter  defect  is 


THE    NEW    SOUTH  439 

overcome;  the  perpetuation  of  democracy  depends 
upon  the  obliteration  of  the  idea  that  education  is  a 
class  privilege.  The  hopeless  condition,  dominant  at 
first,  was  not  the  presence  of  illiteracy,  but  the  absence 
of  any  recognition  among  the  majority  that  literacy 
was  the  one  and  only  solution  to  the  social  and  eco 
nomic  evolution  which  was  being  effected. 

Mr.  Page's  persistency  in  dwelling  upon  such  mat 
ters  in  his  "  The  Rebuilding  of  Old  Commonwealths  " 
has  done  its  share  in  shaping  the  new  public  opinion 
which  now  has  to  be  recognized — since  it  was  hardly 
ever  reckoned  before — as  a  factor  in  the  mental  char 
acter  of  the  Southern  people.  The  democratic  spirit 
is  an  enemy  to  the  aloofness  of  the  poor  white,  to 
his  inadequate  home,  to  his  inability  to  read  or  write, 
and  to  that  religious  superstition  which,  as  Mr.  Page 
has  indicated,  keeps  the  poor  white  woman  in  dull  con 
tentment  with  her  lot. 

The  point  of  view  emphasized  by  such  Southern 
writers  as  the  editor  of  The  World's  Work  is  one 
wholly  dependent  upon  the  democratic  idea;  it  had  to 
follow  logically  the  failure  on  the  part  of  the  aristoc 
racy  and  the  church  in  the  South  to  bestow  an  even 
distribution  of  advantages  over  the  land.  This  does 
not  mean  that  these  two  channels  failed  in  what  they 
did,  but  their  full  efficiency  was  handicapped  by  the 
very  nature  of  their  being.  They  misinterpreted  the 
condition  of  the  poor,  failing  to  see  that  their  status  was 
economic  and  not  due  to  mental  inability.  It  was  the 
public  school  development  in  the  South  which  re-es 
tablished  the  poor  white,  and  assured  the  heritage  of 
future  generations. 

The  presence  of  popular  education  in  the  South  in 
dicates  something  more  than  the  mere  opportunity 
afforded  the  child  of  every  class  to  be  educated ;  it 
stands  also  for  the  presence  among  the  whole  people 
of  a  desire  for  that  broader  culture  of  which  the 


440    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

high  school,  university,  and  library  are  the  symbols. 
It  is  the  whole  community  that  has  to  be  trained — 
in  body,  mind,  and  the  use  of  the  hand. 

This  social  evolution  is,  nevertheless,  materially  af 
fecting  those  elements  bequeathed  the  New  South  out 
of  the  Old,  which  were  most  attractive  and  most  bene 
ficial  to  its  social  order.  In  one  way  this  will  enrich 
the  South,  for  it  will  serve  to  keep  at  home  those 
vigorous  men  who,  as  Mr.  Page  points  out,  emigrate 
North  in  order  to  escape  the  stagnating  elements  in 
Southern  life.  Such  a  state  of  affairs  is  serious;  it 
means  that  as  yet  there  are  not  offered  to  the  Southern 
man  by  Southern  institutions  those  broadening  prin 
ciples  of  education  which  the  Northern  universities 
afford,  and  afterwards  no  wide  channels  are  opened 
for  the  full  practice  of  those  principles.  Even  though 
Mr.  Page  questions  the  democratization  of  the  South 
ern  population,  he  nevertheless  unfailingly  recognizes 
the  two  great  constructive  forces  active  to-day  through 
the  presence  of  education  and  industrialism.  De 
mocracy  is  dependent  upon  an  even  diffusion  of  these 
constructive  forces. 

If  Mr.  Page's  issue  of  The  World's  Work  for  June, 
1907,  devoted  to  "  The  Advancing  South,"  gave  no 
other  than  this  one  impression  of  the  growth  in  in 
dustrialism,  it  would  at  least  have  rightly  measured 
one  of  the  chief  concerns  of  the  South  to-day.  North 
ern  capital  has  helped  to  open  a  large  part  of  the  ter 
ritory  which  slavery  had  made  slothful  through  a  mis 
taken  estimate  of  labor.  The  wrong  emphasis,  how 
ever,  in  the  investigations  of  Mr.  Page  and  his  editor 
ial  staff,  was  placed  upon  the  power  of  investments 
from  the  outside  to  awaken  a  progressive  sentiment 
among  the  people.  For  the  South  has  helped  itself 
quite  as  much  as  it  has  been  helped,  and  has  by  its 
own  efforts  risen  from  the  ruins  of  past  issues. 

A  people  may  not  be  persuaded  upon  any  other 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  441 

terms  than  conviction  that  the  change  is  bettering  the 
economic  condition  and  strengthening  the  social  life. 
The  recognition  of  the  poor  whites  is  making  less 
uncertain  their  attitude  toward  the  negro,  for  the  edu 
cation  of  the  former, — whose  pride  and  lawlessness 
have  largely  overflowed  in  the  mob  spirit — is  helping 
to  create  a  better  understanding  of  the  latter.  The 
poor  white  needs  the  restraint  of  culture  quite  as 
much  as  the  rudiments  of  learning,  even  though  he 
must  have  the  rudiments  first.  For  the  body  politic  de 
mands  that  the  citizen  be  able  to  vote  intelligently; 
that  he  be  able  as  quickly  as  possible  to  rise  above 
the  plane  of  a  mere  tool  of  the  unscrupulous.  As  early 
as  1880,  the  South  recognized  that  illiteracy  at  the 
polls  was  a  menace  to  free  government. 

In  all  directions,  therefore,  the  partial  remedy  for 
the  Southern  problem  was  to  be  found  in  the  proper 
development  of  the  individual.  Curry  was  right  in 
claiming  that  in  the  QO'S  there  was  too  much  belief 
in  the  power  of  legislatures  to  meet  the  conditions 
of  a  labor  which  slavery  had  made  "  ignorant,  com 
pulsory,  and  uninventive."  The  channel  of  correction 
was  that  of  intelligent  labor,  which  would  not  only 
increase  the  capacity  of  production,  but  would  raise 
the  workingman  by  raising  the  character  and  grade 
of  his  work. 

The  situation  will  not  be  bettered  by  examination 
from  the  outside;  such  English  writers  as  William 
Archer  and  H.  G.  Wells  only  express  in  epitome  what 
they  hear  and  view  on  the  surface ;  they  seek  for  di 
verse  opinions,  and  from  them  draw  conclusions  which 
are  well-meant,  but  which  are  not  in  any  way  con 
structive.  While  such  a  volume  as  Ray  Stannard 
Baker's  "  Following  the  Color-Line  "  is  in  some  re 
spects  as  sensational  and  as  unhealthy  as  Dixon's 
"  The  Clansman/'  it  nevertheless  has  the  recommenda 
tion  of  being  reportorially  alive,  however  gullible  the 


442     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

author  may  have  been  in  the  acceptance  of  his  material. 
Mr.  Baker  did  not  travel  South  in  the  historical  spirit 
of  Olmsted,  whose  casual  observation  was  quick,  but 
with  the  newspaper  purpose  of  showing  the  forces 
against  which  the  negro  has  to  contend  in  the  South. 
There  was  much  for  him  to  see,  for  his  book  was  being 
prepared  at  the  time  of  the  Atlanta  Race  Riot  of  Sep 
tember,  1906,  when  he  had  an  excellent  opportunity  of 
estimating  the  conduct  of  a  Southern  political  cam 
paign,  the  labor  question,  the  trend  of  worthless  ne 
groes  toward  the  city,  the  increase  of  crime,  and  the 
ineffectual  power  of  the  police. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  Mr.  Baker's  book  was  not 
more  soundly  conceived,  for  in  many  respects  it  is 
significantly  interesting;  but  any  book  based  on 
exceptional  cases  is  not  trustworthy  as  a  measure  of 
general  condition,  any  more  than  is  the  quotation 
made  by  him  from  Mr.  G.  F.  Mertin's  novel,  "  The 
Storm-Signal,"  regarding  the  race  problem,  indicative 
of  the  best  thought  of  the  South ;  in  fact,  it  is  false 
logic  and  unwise  art. 

It  may  well  be  asked,  in  view  of  the  color-line  de- 
markations  which  enter  into  all  the  problems  in  the 
South,  both  economic  and  social,  what  is  the  intelli 
gent  negro  attitude  on  the  subject?  For  undoubtedly 
discrimination  became  more  apparent  after  the  re 
moval  of  slavery,  and  Mr.  Baker  is  not  the  only  popu 
lar  critic  who  attributes  the  negro's  ceasing  to  sing 
to  his  realization  of  the  color-line.  Mention  has  al 
ready  been  made  of  the  three  positions  of  the  negro 
toward  the  problem ;  basically  they  differ,  nor  do 
they  offer  any  hope  for  the  immediate  betterment  of 
the  negro's  sense  of  responsibility,  no  matter  to  what 
degree  he  may  be  educated. 

Yet,  with  such  a  man  as  Booker  T.  Washington 
exerting  a  practical  leadership,  the  condition  is  not 
hopeless.  Considering  the  Reconstruction  demands 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  443 

of  others  for  the  negro,  he  represents  a  compromise 
stand,  and  because  of  this,  he  has  been  regarded  as  a 
traitor  to  the  cause  by  such  men  as  DuBois,  who  con 
demns  concession,  and  would  surrender  the  idea  of 
adjustment  rather  than  relinquish  one  iota  of  the 
negro's  right  to  civil  and  political  equality.  By  Sep 
tember  1 8,  1895,  when  the  Atlanta  Cotton  States  and 
International  Exposition  was  opened,  Washington  was 
well-grounded  in  his  belief  that  the  negro  would 
sooner  reach  civilization  through  understanding  the 
difference  between  being  worked  and  working,  than 
be  trained  in  knowledge  that  could  not  "  be  harnessed 
to  the  things  of  real  life."  For  the  first  time  in  the 
South,  a  negro  sat  upon  the  same  platform  with  the 
whites,  after  a  distinctive  struggle  up  from  slavery, 
picturesquely,  if  not  remarkably,  described  in  his  books 
and  articles.  Washington's  style  is  on  the  whole 
plain  and  direct,  with  a  tendency  to  occasional  aphor 
ism  ;  its  humor  is  not  dominant,  though  it  comes  in  set 
form,  and  it  is  largely  devoid  of  imaginative  quality. 
Nor  has  it  the  poetry  or  eloquence  or  color  of  DuBois' 
English.  In  content,  it  is  based  on  experience  through 
which  he  has  passed,  and  Tuskegee  embodies  that 
which  he  most  needed  in  the  beginning  of  his  career. 
"  I  would  not  confine  the  race  to  industrial  life/'  he 
once  wrote,  "but  I  would  teach  the  race  that  in  in 
dustry  the  foundation  must  be  laid." 

Through  his  own  efforts  and  attainments,  Washing 
ton  knew  that  industrial  training  was  only  a  means 
toward  an  end;  that  it  would  not  debar  the  negro 
from  higher  attainments,  provided  there  was  that  in 
the  negro  to  produce  the  highest  work.  But  in  the 
face  of  the  economic  improvement  of  the  negro,  there 
are  three  difficulties  in  the  way,  which  would  make 
us  doubt  the  outcome  of  the  problem:  the  negro  is 
not  adding  to  the  creative  output  of  the  South,  or,  for 
that  matter,  of  the  nation;  mere  book-learning  is  not 


444    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

enriching  his  ethical  duties  as  a  citizen;  mere  indus 
trial  training,  which  leads  to  his  economic  efficiency, 
is  not  developing  his  initiative  or  his  sense  of  responsi 
bility.  Washington's  cry  is :  "  Our  pathway  must 
be  up  through  the  soil,  up  through  swamps,  up  through 
forests,  up  through  the  streams,  the  rocks,  up  through 
commerce,  education,  and  religion."  But  he  does  not 
satisfactorily  indicate  the  goal. 

"  Up  from  Slavery  "  is  a  remarkably  human  docu 
ment  ;  it  is  full  of  the  strength  of  personal  achievement, 
of  exceptional  will-power.  Had  there  been  no  Hamp 
ton  Institute,  to  which  Washington  went  in  1872,  re 
maining  three  years,  and  had  there  been  no  inspira 
tional  guidance  of  such  a  practical  worker  in  the  cause 
of  the  negro  as  General  Samuel  C.  Armstrong,  there 
would  have  been  no  Tuskegee  in  1881.  It  is  not 
within  our  scope  to  analyze  the  work  of  negro  educa 
tion  in  the  South ;  it  was  no  easy  matter  for  Wash 
ington  to  overcome  the  obstacles  of  poverty  and  preju 
dice,  not  among  the  better  classes,  but  in  those  cabins 
where  one  fork  and  a  sixty-dollar  organ  showed  the 
conflicting  ideas  of  life  in  its  most  thriftless  state. 
The  interesting  point  to  recollect  is  that  Washington 
was  called  to  Tuskegee  through  popular  demand  for 
education,  though  the  current  of  opposition  toward 
industrial  training  was  strong. 

DuBois'  grievance  against  Washington  was  aimed 
at  the  sentence  in  the  latter's  Atlanta  address,  which 
ran :  "  In  all  things  purely  social  we  can  be  as  sepa 
rate  as  the  five  fingers,  and  yet  one  as  the  hand  in 
all  things  essential  to  mutual  progress."  But  if  Du 
Bois  claims  that,  in  the  persistency  of  his  industrial 
attitude,  Washington  is  underestimating  the  higher 
aims  of  life  for  the  negro,  it  is  well  to  demand  of 
DuBois  some  other  than  the  aggressive  and  pessimis 
tic  tone  which  dominates  his  book,  "  The  Souls  of 
Black  Folk."  There  is  no  desire,  as  far  as  we  can 


By  courtesy  of  Houghton  Mifflin  Company. 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  445 

see,  on  the  part  of  Washington,  to  shift  the  burden 
wholly  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  negro,  but,  in  his 
determination  to  make  the  burden  rest  on  the  nation, 
there  is  hardly  any  effort  on  DuBois'  part  to  see 
whether  the  negro  is  in  fit  condition  to  carry  the 
weight,  were  it  put  upon  him,  and  were  the  Southern 
whites  willing  to  relinquish  their  responsibility.  There 
is  no  such  thing  in  DuBois  as  compromise  toward  the 
whites,  however  much  the  latter  might  compromise 
toward  the  blacks.  He  has  misinterpreted  the  spirit 
of  Washington's  "  compromise,"  for  never  once  did 
the  latter,  in  his  arguments,  relinquish  the  ideas  of 
political  power,  of  civil  rights,  of  higher  education  for 
his  race;  he  saw  that  it  was  futile  to  insist  upon 
that  for  which  the  negro  was  not  adequately  prepared. 
None  of  these  factors  was  to  be  obliterated  in  the 
scheme  for  adjustment,  nor  in  any  momentary  post 
ponement  were  there  to  be  found  the  causes  of  dis- 
franchisement  and  of  civil  discrimination  which  Du 
Bois  believes. 

The  whole  matter  is,  that  there  are  rifts  of  incon 
sistency  in  the  policy  on  both  sides.  In  his  books  we 
find  DuBois  arguing  for  higher  education  on  the  sup 
position  that  the  negro  race  is  to  be  saved  by  its  ex 
ceptional  men,  by  its  "  Talented  Tenth,"  who  in  their 
rise  will  carry  their  brothers  with  them.  Mr.  Mur 
phy's  view  is  different,  inasmuch  as  he  believes  that 
emancipation  allowed  the  exceptional  to  rise  and  the 
average  to  fall, — conditions  which  in  both  directions 
were  held  in  restraint.  There  is  some  wisdom  in  Du 
Bois'  claim  that  the  college-bred  negro  must  become 
a  group  leader  and  take  the  same  position  among  his 
people  as  the  preacher;  nevertheless,  in  his  claims  for 
the  college  above  the  normal  training  school,  DuBois 
takes  for  granted  a  state  of  mental  and  moral  attain 
ment  far  above  the  negro.  "  I  insist,"  he  writes,  "  that 
the  object  of  all  true  education  is  not  to  make  men 


446    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

carpenters,  it  is  to  make  carpenters  men  " ;  yet  the  first 
premise  presupposes  moral  accountability;  and  the 
second  premise,  which  he  advocates,  recognizes  the  pre- 
existence  of  the  very  training  which  to  him  is  second 
ary.  Even  in  his  belief — which  no  one  will  dispute, — 
that  the  effectiveness  of  negro  education  depends  upon 
the  effective  teacher,  he  does  not  greatly  strengthen 
his  position,  since  no  teacher,  however  well  trained, 
will  prove  effective  who  does  not  realize  the  needs  of 
the  average,  and  meet  the  situation  with  essentials. 

Yet  there  are  positive  results  from  this  extensive 
educational  activity.  We  have  passed  the  sentimental 
stage  in  the  work;  we  are  now  taking  stock,  and  we 
find  how  greatly  the  percentage  of  illiteracy  is  being  re 
duced  ;  how  well  literacy  is  finding  proper  channels  in 
Southern  civilization  for  the  artisan,  the  agricultural 
laborer,  the  renter,  the  landowner,  the  mechanic,  the 
business  man,  and  the  professional  man.  In  many 
ways,  provided  the  average  negro  continues  normally 
in  his  development,  his  economic  position  is  assured 
for  the  future,  despite  the  talk  about  emigration.  For 
it  is  well  taken  that  in  the  South  the  negro  has  many 
channels  open  for  earning  his  living  which  are  denied 
him  in  the  North.  It  is  the  glamour  of  social  privilege 
which  brings  the  negro  North  and  gives  him  little 
permanent  benefit  in  return  for  what  he  relinquishes 
by  the  move.  For,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  color-line 
there  is  more  severely  drawn,  especially  in  those  direc 
tions  based  on  economic  privilege.  Nowhere  in  the 
South  has  the  negro  been  denied  a  right  to  earn  his 
living,  but  he  is  faring  ill  in  competition  with  the  emi 
grant  class  in  the  North. 

The  establishment  of  the  negro  home  is  one  of  the 
hopeful  signs  of  the  day;  if  this  is  properly  main 
tained,  there  is  none  of  DuBois'  fear  that  industrial 
ism  will  woo  the  black  man  from  righteousness.  But, 
as  Mr.  Thomas  Nelson  Page  argues  in  his  popular 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  447 

treatise  on  the  negro,  the  negro  workman  has  in  many 
respects  retrograded,  his  skill  has  been  diffused  over 
too  wide  an  area  for  his  ability  to  compass.  While 
such  negro  universities  as  Fisk,  Atlanta,  Howard, 
Hampton,  Shaw,  Wilberforce,  and  Leland,  are  doing 
their  share — Atlanta  especially,  where  DuBois'  mono 
graphs  on  the  social  condition  of  the  negro  are  filling 
a  great  need — the  problem  is  still  a  grave  one,  far 
from  solution  as  yet.  But  whatever  his  progress,  his 
improved  methods  as  a  farmer,  as  a  business  man,  and 
as  a  citizen,  are  encouraging.  Though  he  shows  a 
slow  and  sullen  response  to  moral  appeal,  there  is 
something  to  say  against  a  certain  class  of  white  in  the 
South,  which,  not  expecting  the  black  to  be  moral, 
fails  to  practice  morality  on  its  part.  Such  an  at 
mosphere  is  not  conducive  to  the  healthiest  conditions. 
The  increase  of  the  mulatto  is  significant  and  a 
menace ! 

The  writing  which  has  been  done  in  the  South  on 
social  topics  has  brought  more  clearly  into  view  the 
fact  that  the  most  disquieting  element  in  the  problem 
now  in  evolution  is  the  suffrage  question;  for  long 
after  the  constitutional  amendments  were  accepted  by 
the  seceded  States,  each  State  in  turn  proceeded  (be 
ginning  in  1890)  to  limit  the  franchise  according  to 
local  need  and  sentiment.  Yet  here  again,  when  we 
compare  the  saneness  of  white  thought  as  represented 
by  Mr.  Murphy's  views  on  the  Fourteenth  Amend 
ment,  with  the  negro  attitude  as  represented  by  the 
aggressiveness  of  Charles  W.  Chesnutt,  who  has  writ 
ten  on  "  Disfranchisement,"  we  shall  see  how  much 
more  of  a  force  the  white  man  is  in  developing  those 
constructive  elements  which  are  the  life  of  the  South. 
For  the  negro  is  still  demanding  what  the  abolitionist 
wanted  him  to  have,  and  has  not  taken  advantage  of 
the  calm,  scholarly  examination  of  the  real  status, 
which  has  proven  that  suffrage  cannot  be  established 


448     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

by  law,  but  by  fitness  alone.  The  South  does  not 
deny  that  the  constitutional  amendments  are  not  being 
upheld,  nor  does  the  South  refuse  the  ballot  to 
anyone;  it  simply  withholds  the  privilege  by  require 
ments  which  fall  within  the  limits  of  every  citizen  to 
meet.  Really,  what  is  being  clone  in  the  South  is,  not 
to  suppress  the  negro,  but  to  raise  the  value  of  the 
vote.  If  Congressional  representation  were  threatened, 
then  the  South  would  unhesitatingly  withdraw  the 
suffrage  restrictions,  and  the  illiterate  man  would  be 
of  just  as  great  value,  numerically,  as  the  one  ade 
quately  educated.  Such  a  move  would  only  invite 
the  practice  of  corruption.  American  civic  strength 
depends  upon  the  quality  of  the  vote  and  not  upon  the 
quantity.  It  is  a  right  to  be  earned  by  all  men,  irre 
spective  of  color,  and  the  South  is  conscious  of  this 
fact. 

The  constructive  energy,  therefore,  is  being  em 
ployed  very  largely  in  the  type  of  literature  which  has 
bearing  on  broad  social  and  economic  questions.  To 
a  certain  degree  this  has  added  to  the  point  of  view 
possessed  by  the  Southern  novelist.  But  it  takes  a 
period  of  self-examination  and  of  self-criticism  to 
attach  a  literature  to  the  soil,  and,  as  yet,  the  Southern 
writer  is  loath  to  let  the  old  civilization  go.  Even 
the  negro  has  not  yet  ventured  to  treat  of  his  kind  in 
their  modern  state ;  he  resorts  to  folk-lore,  to  obsolete 
superstitions,  to  picturesque  barbarities,  and  the  eco 
nomic  negro  has  still  to  enter  literature  in  other  guise 
than  as  a  slave.  More  than  ever  do  we  recognize  that 
at  the  present  time  the  social  forces  in  Southern  life 
are  greater  than  the  literature,  but  there  is  a  cultural 
awakening  at  hand  which  already  gives  indication  of 
a  noteworthy  literary  renaissance. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 
THE   NEW   SOUTH 

SOCIAL  JUSTICE  AND  THE  LAW;  THE  HISTORIC 
SENSE;  EVIDENCES  OF  A  CULTURAL  INITIATIVE; 
CREOLE  CULTURE;  MOUNTAIN  CULTURE;  FOLK 
SONG  AND  FOLK-LORE;  THE  NEGRO  IN  LITERA 
TURE;  THE  NOVELISTS  OF  LOCALITY;  THE  LATER 
CLAIMS  OF  LYRICISM  ;  SUMMARY. 


THE  renaissance  which  has  been  suggested  began 
with  the  accentuation  of  the  term — New  South.  This 
did  not  mean  that  an  old  civilization  was  utterly  for 
gotten,  or  that  the  cleavage  between  industrialism  and 
agriculture  was  so  sudden  as  to  be  instantly  marked. 
It  simply  meant,  as  Dr.  Alderman  has  said,  that  there 
was  a  resumption  of  the  idea  of  national  unity  which 
our  forefathers  so  steadfastly  maintained,  and  which 
"  got  shunted  off  "  by  slavery.  'And  by  the  very  main 
tenance  of  that  term — New  South — there  is  exhibited 
the  pronounced  tendency  of  the  Southern  people  to 
uphold  a  phrase  by  the  highest  in  their  natures. 

Its  utterance  came  with  the  Centennial  spirit,  when 
large  men  strove  to  overleap  the  obstacles  of  reconcili 
ation  between  the  North  anpl  South.  Many  remark 
able  forces  were  at  work  as  evidence  of  the  good-will 
prompting  the  attempt.  When  Lanier  wrote  his 
"  Cantata,"  the  attack  upon  him  from  the  press,  while 
perhaps  fraught  with  a  tinge  of  sectional  bitterness, 
was  likewise  deservedly  critical,  for  a  poem  such  as 

449 


450    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

tluit  one,  written  by  the  formula  of  a  poetic  theory, 
challenged  opposition,  no  matter  what  its  national  out 
look.  But  Lanier,  apart  from  this  artistic  task,  was 
an  unswerving  believer  in  the  eventual  consolidation 
of  sectional  interests;  he  reached  his  beliefs,  quite  as 
much  because  it  was  his  nature  to  love,  as  it  was  his 
habit  to  weigh  cause  and  effect.  And  thus  it  is,  that 
in  any  discussion  of  the  constructive  forces  molding 
the  New  South,  Lanier  must  be  carefully  considered 
in  his  art  expressions,  as  Senator  Morgan,  of  Alabama, 
and  Senator  L.  Q.  C.  Lamar,  of  Mississippi,  were  in 
their  Congressional  efforts  for  adjustment  and  under 
standing. 

The  term  New  South,  however,  is  associated  very 
largely  with  the  name  of  a  most  lovable  figure  in 
Southern  letters — Henry  W.  Grady  (1851-1889), 
whose  short  career  as  journalist  and  as  citizen  left 
indelible  impress  upon  his  section,  and  most  partic 
ularly  upon  the  city  of  Atlanta.  He  was  a  child  of 
the  Reconstruction,  beginning  to  write  when  a  mere 
boy;  and  despite  the  fact  that  the  war  bereft  him  of 
his  father,  he  buried  all  issues  and  reached  forward  at 
a  time  when  it  would  have  meant  destruction  to  look 
backward.  No  man  was  so  loved  as  he,  no  eloquence 
carried  with  it  wherever  he  went — North  or  South — 
so  much  hopefulness  as  his;  no  vision  at  the  time 
was  so  clear  in  its  practical  scope.  The  very  secret 
of  his  power,  the  very  fascination  of  his  speech,  were 
born  of  a  youth  whose  genius  did  not  require  pro 
found  learning  to  measure  the  affairs  of  men. 

Grady's  honesty  of  purpose  is  an  example  upon 
which  many  have  discoursed.  He  was  above  corrup 
tion;  he  declined  public  emolument;  his  concept 
of  journalism  was  essentially  simple;  he  wrote 
with  force,  with  picturesqueness,  with  humor,  and 
always  with  truth ;  he  did  not  descend  to  mean 
ness;  his  friends  never  knew  him  to  bear  malice. 
These  traits  of  character,  of  personal  magnetism,  are 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  451 

significant  in  a  son  of  Reconstruction.  If  he  had  polit 
ical  faith,  it  was  not  because  politics  inspired  it,  but 
because,  as  a  journalist,  he  felt  that  an  editorial  writer 
could  wield  influence  for  the  better;  if,  as  a  journalist, 
he  believed  in  and  maintained  the  dignity  of  his  office, 
it  was  not  because  that  office  throughout  the  South 
was  highly  conceived,  even  though  Prentice  and  Wat- 
terson  in  Louisville  were  maintaining  a  high  standard. 

There  was  moral  enthusiasm  in  everything  done  by 
Grady,  but  it  was  likewise  his  artistry  which  brought 
him  much  of  his  effect.  When  he  went  to  Charleston, 
at  the  time  of  the  earthquake,  his  masterfulness  was  no 
less  marked  than  the  beneficent  kindliness  of  his  pres 
ence.  Though  no  reporter,  in  the  common  acceptance 
of  the  term,  he  carried  the  reportorial  method  to  the 
highest  point,  and  concentrated  all  his  quickness,  his 
dramatic  instinct,  his  humanity,  upon  some  purpose. 

It  is,  therefore,  not  surprising  that  Grady  was  re 
garded  as  one  of  the  big  forces  in  the  South  at  the  time 
he  purchased  an  interest  in  the  Atlanta  Constitution, 
during  1880.  He  was  a  force  among  the  rural  popula 
tion,  because  there  was  that  in  him  out  of  which  a 
farmer  might  have  been  made;  he  was  a  force  in  the 
political  life  of  Georgia,  because  he  understood  the 
wants  of  the  people  and  had  within  him  a  true  demo 
cratic  sympathy.  His  position  in  the  newspaper  world 
had  been  subject  to  many  precarious  turns  of  fortune, 
and  his  experiences  with  the  New  York  Herald  made 
him  acquainted  with  the  North,  where  he  was  to  do 
some  of  his  most  effective  oratory  in  the  cause  of  the 
New  South.  Wherever  he  went,  such  a  man  was  as 
sured  of  friends;  his  very  conversational  powers  at 
tracted  ;  his  social  bearing,  his  love  of  children,  his 
sentiment,  which  was  as  traditional  as  his  speeches 
were  prophetic — these  were  the  elements  which  con 
duced,  as  Harris  says,  to  make  him  the  best-loved  man 
in  Georgia. 

People  knew  the  carrying  power  of  Grady.     What- 


452    THE  LITERATURE  OF,  THE  SOUTH 

ever  local  enterprise  was  at  stake,  he  was  sought  in 
its  cause;  the  common  belief  was  that  a  man  had  best 
give  up  a  political  office  if  Grady  were  not  with  him. 
Atlanta  called  upon  him  many  times;  his  appeals, 
which  took  the  form  of  moving  editorials,  carried 
instantaneous  effect;  he  had  the  creative  ability,  and 
he  exercised  imagination. 

As  a  figure  of  more  than  local  or  sectional  impor 
tance,  Grady  came  to  the  fore  on  December  21,  1886, 
when,  before  the  New  England  Club,  he  delivered  his 
famous  address  on  "  The  New  South."  Not  only  was 
the  address  notable,  but  it  was  a  trick  of  Fate  that 
this  Georgian  should  be  able  to  stand  within  the  path 
of  Sherman,  as  an  example  of  how  the  South  recov 
ered  from  the  latter's  "  carelessness  with  fire."  There 
was  beauty  in  his  picture  of  the  return  home  of  the 
Confederate  soldier, — a  beauty  as  touching,  as  poetic, 
as  his  conception  of  the  farmer's  home.  But  more  than 
that,  Grady  bore  evidence,  in  every  warm  word  he 
uttered,  that  he  knew  what  this  South  of  the  future 
was  to  be — not  one  of  ruin  amidst  sullenness,  but  a 
South  realizing  its  resources  and  its  responsibilities. 
It  was  not  in  him  to  relinquish  the  past,  or  to  regret ; 
but  he  voiced  the  South's  tremendous  hope  for  the 
future  which  lay  in  the  resumption  of  national 
obligations. 

The  moral  effect  of  this  speech  was  tremendous; 
Grady's  name  rang  through  the  land  ;  his  words  caught 
fire;  his  imagery  lingered  in  the  minds  of  North  and 
South  alike.  Wherever  he  turned  now,  he  was  asked 
for  utterance  on  imminent  problems,  and  in  examina 
tion  of  the  South  he  was  always  most  keen,  most  far- 
reaching.  His  political  grasp  made  him  see  the  neces 
sity  for  keeping  the  integrity  of  the  vote,  though  he 
was  far  from  wanting  the  negro  left  unprotected ;  his 
familiarity  with  the  rural  South  gave  him  opportunity 
of  noting  what  need  there  was  for  thrift  and  industry. 


JAMES    LANE    ALLEN. 
By  courtesy  of  the  Macmillan  Company. 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  453 

With  Lanier,  who  sang  of  the  South  in  "Corn,"  he 
realized  that  with  the  passing  of  slavery,  the  old  eco 
nomic  law  would  no  longer  be  tenable.  He  thus 
prophesies  what  is  at  the  basis  of  Mr.  Murphy's  books : 

"  The  New  South  presents  a  perfect  democracy, 
the  oligarchs  leading  in  the  popular  movement — a 
social  system  compact  and  closely  knitted,  less  splendid 
on  the  surface,  but  stronger  at  the  core;  a  hundred 
farms  for  every  plantation,  fifty  homes  for  every  pal 
ace,  and  a  diversified  industry  that  meets  the  complex 
needs  of  this  complex  age." 

Grady  had  a  striking  manner  of  painting  condition, 
of  reaching  his  climax  by  contrast;  but  more  than 
that,  it  was  the  manhood  represented  by  him  which 
meant  most.  When  he  died,  in  1889,  we  know  of  no 
more  universal  grief  than  that  shown  North  and  South. 

The  effect  of  consolidation,  of  compactness,  of  uni 
formity,  is  being  felt  in  many  ways  throughout  the 
South.  In  1870,  when  Professor  Shaler  wrote  of  his 
return  visit  to  South  Carolina,  he  was  of  the  opinion 
that  the  Southerners  varied  so  pronouncedly  because 
they  had  grown  up  farther  apart  [than  Northerners], 
and  had  "not  shaped  themselves  on  each  other,  like 
the  cells  in  a  honeycomb  or  the  trees  in  a  forest." 
Yet  concentration,  which  leads  to  congestion,  was  de 
plored  by  Grady  when  he  saw  the  phenomenal  growth 
of  Atlanta  around  1870.  Nevertheless,  the  increase  of 
city  life  in  the  South  has  meant  a  like  increase  of 
wealth  and  the  attraction  of  capital  from  the  North. 
The  section  must  be  careful  of  the  emigrant,  since 
the  labor  problem  is  already  complicated  enough;  in 
the  formation  of  new  political  policies,  the  South  still 
has  to  protect  itself  from  the  outside,  until  there  is  a 
full  realization  that  the  negro  problem  is  a  national 
problem  after  all. 

For  the  opening-up  process  of  a  civilization,  used  to 
conservatism  based  on  class  distinction,  must  be  care- 


454    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

fully  considered.  Politically,  the  South  has  remained 
solid  ever  since  Republicanism  became  identified  with 
Reconstruction;  the  unwisdom  of  the  latter  acts  still 
cling  to  it,  although  the  party  itself  has  changed — in 
fact,  has  so  closely  approached  Democracy  as  to  make 
the  two  scarcely  unlike,  save  in  their  sectional  tra 
ditions.  The  term  "  Solid  South  "  carries  with  it 
certain  distrust,  largely  due  to  the  presence  of  the 
negro.  Should  the  compactness  give  way — a  dissolu 
tion  which  would  undoubtedly  do  much  to  broaden  the 
political  thought  of  the  Southern  people — there  is 
nothing  in  the  horizon  to  assure  the  section  of  that 
guardedness  which  political  compactness  now  guaran 
tees.  The  constitutional  amendments  are  still  immi 
nent.  Of  course  this  attitude  leads  to  a  continuance 
of  isolation,  to  a  retarding  of  the  growth  of  national 
ideals,  and  to  the  further  maintenance  of  a  sectional 
antagonism.  The  problem  is  still  in  solution. 

In  fact,  the  South  is  in  a  state  of  transition,  and  that 
is  why,  for  our  literary  purpose,  we  needs  must  pass 
lightly  over  the  points  of  political  interest.  The  con 
dition  of  the  popular  mind  toward  child  labor  and 
its  just  regulation,  toward  the  cotton  mill  and  its  influ 
ence  on  rural  life,  will  be  duly  reflected  in  the  litera 
ture  within  the  next  decade;  the  social  consciousness 
of  these  facts  is  now  seeking  expression;  human  jus 
tice  is  at  work.  And  it  is  to  be  noted,  as  Alderman 
asserts,  that  while  the  spirit  of  industrialism  has 
gripped  the  South — industrialism  as  opposed  to  com 
mercialism — the  spirit  of  the  ideal  is  too  much  a  part 
of  Southern  character  to  be  destroyed.  This  awak 
ening,  this  broadening,  this  enriching  of  the  social 
and  economic  life,  which  was  so  numbed  by  the  insti 
tution  of  slavery  around  1830,  will  make  flexible  the 
mental  activity  of  the  South. 

One  of  the  greatest  factors  in  the  educational  trans 
formation  of  the  section  will  be  the  increased  respect 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  455 

for  law  and  order  among  a  mixed  population. 
Through  this  acquisition  will  arrive  the  time  when 
lynching  will  be  obliterated,  when  a  species  of  social 
hysteria,  analyzed  by  Mr.  Murphy  and  Mr.  Page,  will 
give  way  before  the  efficiency  of  a  constabulary,  and 
the  exercise  of  justice  to  the  negro  as  well  as  to  the 
white.  It  is  a  matter  Which  involves  the  moral  devel 
opment  of  the  negro,  which  necessitates  the  alertness, 
and  the  calm  but  firm  action  of  the  people  as  a  demo 
cratic  body  in  whom  the  law  is  vested  to  exercise  and 
not  to  break.  The  Southern  people  are  realizing  that 
lynch  law  does  not  prevent  the  crime  which  has  been 
encouraged  through  the  mistaken  idea  of  social  equal 
ity,  inflaming  the  minds  of  the  brute  negroes.  The 
best  whites  need  to  condemn  the  lynchers  who  discount 
the  effectiveness  of  law  and  order;  the  most  intelli 
gent  negroes  should  condemn  the  outrage,  and  not 
seek  to  protect  the  criminal.  In  dealing  with  these 
problems  literarily,  the  Southern  writer  either  shows 
reticence  or  indifference,  for  the  reading  public  is  sen 
sitive  whenever  plain  talk  is  mixed  with  fiction.  It  is 
within  the  power  of  the  economist,  of  the  sociologist, 
of  the  constructive  statesman,  to  create  a  public  opin 
ion  which  will  be  concerned  in  a  literary  expression 
of  Southern  conditions  and  of  live  issues. 


In  1873,  a  wave  of  interest  in  the  literary  possibili 
ties  of  the  South  swept  over  the  Northern  magazine 
editor;  Scribner's,  then  under  the  supervision  of  J.  G. 
Holland,  sent  a  special  train  through  the  Lower  South 
on  a  mission  of  discovery,  and  many  of  the  authors 
familiar  to  us  of  the  present  were  forthcoming  as  a 
consequence  of  this  quest.  In  the  January  issue  of 
Harper's  for  1874,  there  were  several  articles  on  the 


456    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

New  South,  and  in  1881,  a  special  editorial  was  printed 
in  Scribnefs,  whose  cordial  tone  was  nevertheless  com 
bined  with  some  discerning  remarks  regarding  the  un 
reasoning  idolatry  bestowed  upon  Southern  literature 
of  the  past,  which  at  its  best  was  provincial,  over- 
florid,  and  over-sentimental.  It  was  then  recognized 
that  what  the  South  most  needed — outside  the  imme 
diate  necessities  of  living — were  broad  sympathy, 
which  was  very  different  from  the  previous  exclusive- 
ness,  and  a  realization  that  local  appreciation  meant 
provincialism,  while  universal  approbation  was 
founded  on  a  broader  culture. 

As  a  consequence  of  Scribner's  initiative,  the  Cen 
tury  for  April,  1884,  appeared  with  a  frontispiece  of 
Lanier,  and  Dr.  Ward's  discriminating  critique  on 
the  poet.  The  contents  also  showed  an  article  on  the 
negro  problem,  called  "  Uncle  Tom  without  a  Cabin  "  ; 
an  installment  of  Cable's  "  Dr.  Sevier " ;  Page's  ex 
quisite  story,  "  Marse  Chan,"  and  an  "Open  Letter" 
on  Lanier  and  the  English  Novel.  This  response  to 
the  call  of  1873  was  propitious;  it  meant  that  the  cul 
ture  of  the  past  was  not  devoid  of  the  creative  im 
pulse  ;  it  also  represented  at  the  very  outset  the  char 
acter  of  the  literature  which  woulcl  necessarily  follow 
the  passing  of  a  cherished  regime. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  our  point  of  view  regarding 
Southern  letters  has  been  sufficiently  emphasized  to 
justify  its  connection  with  social  and  economic  his 
tory.  Others,  like  Davidson,  Rutherford,  Manley,  Hol- 
liday,  and  Trent,  have  presented  the  usual  biograph 
ical  data,  with  sufficient  perspective  to  indicate  how 
closely  dependent  the  literature  is  upon  the  life.  But 
the  complete  realization  of  the  connection  is  best  had 
through  accentuation  of  the  atmosphere  and  the  tradi 
tional  ideas,  which  lent  feeling  to  the  style,  at  the 
same  time  that  they  limited  catholicity  of  taste.  Link 
and  Baskerville  in  turn  have  prepared  suggestive 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  457 

studies  of  individual  authors,  showing  discernment  and 
critical  appreciation.  But  in  none  of  these  has  there 
been  an  emphatic  justification  of  the  sectional  point  of 
view  because  of  the  distinctive  evolution  of  Southern 
culture.  That  is  the  only  reason  for  a  book  on  South 
ern  literature;  it  is  made  possible  by  the  life  of  the 
past;  apart  from  the  New  England  school,  national 
development  has  largely  been  colored  by  Southern 
character.  In  fact,  Judge  Tourgee  was  correct  in  his 
1888  opinion:  "A  foreigner  studying  our  current 
literature,  without  knowledge  of  our  history,  and 
judging  our  civilization  by  our  fiction,  would  undoubt 
edly  conclude  that  the  South  was  the  seat  of  intellec 
tual  empire  in  America,  and  the  African  the  chief 
romantic  element  of  our  population." 

The  South  has  never  been  without  .culture,  without 
mental  activity  of  a  certain  character,  but  it  was  a 
culture  of  a  classic  coldness,  unrelated  to  life,  to  imme 
diate  problems,  unapplied  save  in  the  practice  of  a 
courtly  manner  or  in  the  utterance  of  a  rounded 
speech.  It  was  not  willing  to  embrace,  to  include,  to 
assimilate  the  new  activities  which  were  products  of 
the  present.  It  dealt  with  class  rather  than  with 
classes.  Southern  fiction  has  suffered  from  this  con 
servative  limitation ;  the  poor  white  and  the  economic 
negro  are  still  to  be  given  full  literary  recognition. 
We  have  been  too  long  in  our  expression  of  what 
Tourgee  called  the  "  accumulated  pathos  of  a  million 
abdications." 

Perhaps  the  insistence  with  which  the  term  "  South 
ern  Literature  "  has  been  used,  obscures  the  real  prog 
ress  of  the  social  life.  If,  as  Professor  Snyder  seems 
to  believe,  the  Southern  people  wanted  their  own  par 
ticular  body  of  letters  by  reason  "  of  the  excessive 
intellectual  loneliness  and  detachment  forced  upon  the 
South  by  the  very  conditions  of  its  life,"  it  is  evident 
now  that,  with  the  passing  of  slavery,  with  the  tend- 


458    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

encies  toward  democracy — brought  about  by  a  will 
ingness  to  probe  deep  for  historic  truth,  however  much 
it  might  hurt  local  pride  in  the  beginning — the 
South  is  demanding  a  literature  which,  if  the  en 
vironment  is  local,  must  nevertheless  be  measured  in 
terms  common  to  all  minds.  The  very  fact  that  cer 
tain  conditions  have  been  removed  which  once  kept 
the  South  historically  on  the  defensive,  has  wrought 
a  wonderful  change  in  the  mental  attitude.  This  has 
not  only  made  the  public  more  demanding  of  the  qual 
ity  of  its  literature,  but  it  has  likewise  produced  a 
scholarship  which  has  brought  credit  to  the  Smith 
sonian  Institution,  Johns  Hopkins  University,  the  Uni 
versity  of  the  South  (Sewanee),  and  the  University 
of  Virginia.  In  some  instances,  the  student  has  suffered 
for  his  stand  against  conservatism,  for  his  research ; 
the  constructive  work  of  Professor  Trent  separated 
him  from  complete  appreciation  by  the  South,  and 
brought  him  North. 

Yet,  the  historical  view  in  the  South  is  now  so 
broad  as  to  accept  keen  criticism,  and  the  popular  re 
sponse  to  the  critical  spirit  is  seen  in  the  numberless 
historical  societies  and  associations  which,  even  if,  in 
a  superficial  manner,  they  do  not  serve  to  deepen 
Southern  thought,  at  least  dispel  inherited  preju 
dices.  The  student  needs  must  watch  closely  the  ex 
tension  of  the  university  spirit  in  wider  channels — an 
extension  prophesied  and  planned  for  by  Lanier  in  his 
correspondence  with  President  Gilman. 

Still,  we  cannot  help  but  heed  the  warnings  of  John 
Spencer  Bassett,  who  has  watched  socially  and  eco 
nomically  the  field  of  Southern  authorship — a  field 
still  lacking  in  that  popular  encouragement  which  jus 
tifies  the  practice  of  letters  as  a  profession.  There  is 
a  whole  historical  perspective  behind  the  statement 
that  "  we  write  as  a  people  who  are  not  yet  out  of 
the  stage  of  uncultured  animalism " — a  civilization 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  459 

with  no  intellectual  incentive,  because  of  prescribed 
culture.  The  mental  stimulation  has  just  been  suf 
ficient,  since  1902,  when  the  historical  initiative  began, 
to  show  the  ambitious  Southerner  how  necessary  it  is 
for  him  to  turn  where  people  reside  in  an  atmosphere 
of  expectancy.  As  we  have  said,  no  section  can  long 
stand  this  exceptional  drain. 

So,  with  the  intensive  development  of  the  historical 
view,  with  the  further  accentuation  of  the  critical 
spirit,  with  the  increased  interest  in  letters  among  all 
classes,  due  to  education  and  the  libraries — two  factors 
which  are  bridging  the  distances  between  the  rural 
South  and  city  life — with  these  active  forces,  the  gen 
eral  economic  condition  of  the  book-trade  in  the  South 
should  be  bettered.  Yet,  as  Dr.  Bassett  suggests,  the 
process  of  making  the  Southern  people  love  books  suf 
ficiently  to  buy  them  is  a  slow  process ;  in  consequence, 
the  Northern  publisher  regards  his  Southern  territory 
with  condescension,  and  in  many  cases — through  a 
process  of  mistaken  indifference — sends  his  poorest 
traveler  in  the  rural  districts  where  the  greatest  in 
genuity  and  personal  initiative  are  requisite.  The  fact 
is  that  at  present  there  is  not  sufficient  money  in  the 
South  to  make  the  intellectual  institutions  independ 
ent  economically  of  the  social  condition,  and  for  that 
reason,  the  Southern  college, — poorly  endowed,  if  en 
dowed  at  all, — cannot  offer  the  broad  inducements 
held  forth  to  Southern  students  by  Northern  univer 
sities.  For  example,  the  libraries  in  the  South  are 
not  yet  equipped  in  reference  material  for  the  proper 
exercise  of  the  research  spirit.  Columbia  University, 
by  reason  of  the  gift  made  to  it  of  the  "Garden 
Library"  of  Southern  Americana,  is  exceptionally 
well  prepared  for  special  study  of  Southern  conditions, 
and  its  doctorate  list  will  indicate  how  well  the  South 
ern  student  has  responded  to  the  opportunity.  But, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  all  universities  are  devoting  some 


460    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

time  to  preparation  of  invaluable  monographs  on 
Southern  economic  and  social  problems. 

This  renaissance  of  the  critical  spirit  in  the  South 
has  produced  three  types  of  mind.  The  man  who  has 
just  wakened  after  a  period  of  mental  sloth,  due  to 
condition  of  environment,  is  usually  strong  in  an  untu 
tored  fashion,  and  is  often  wrong  by  reason  of  the 
very  refreshing  boldness  with  which  historic  truth  is 
ignored.  This  response  is  representative  of  the 
South's  realization  that  it  has  a  right  to  think;  it  de 
pends  upon  all  of  its  native  genius,  and  is  attractive 
because,  as  far  as  manner  goes,  it  is  youthful  and 
wild  and  confident,  even  if  only  partly  true.  Such  a 
writer  is  one  of  the  hopeful  signs  of  the  awaken 
ing  provincial  South,  struggling  against  Southern  lim 
itations  which  still  cling,  despite  the  many  efforts  to 
be  free  of  them.  His  essays,  when  he  produces  them, 
are  brilliant,  his  stories  alive  to  conditions  of  the  soil : 
he  is  perhaps  deft  in  poignant  phrasing,  and  his  ob 
servation  is  intuitive  rather  than  all-embracing.  By 
its  very  bravery  in  a  broader  atmosphere,  such  a  tem 
perament  shows  its  provincialism  in  the  effort  to 
be  cosmopolitan.  But  it  is  vigorous  by  reason  of  a 
broader  contact,  though  it  shows  no  willingness  to 
practice  intellectual  courtesy  toward  others.  It  is  a 
reaction,  probably  clue  to  the  culture  of  the  old 
regime,  which  was  conventional  in  a  repressive  way. 
Mrs.  L.  H.  Harris  is  a  fair  example  of  this  class. 

The  other  type  of  mind  is  that  which  devotes  itself 
to  research  in  the  spirit  of  preservation — the  spirit 
which  dominates  in  the  average  text-books  on  South 
ern  literature,  and  in  the  compilation  issued  in  1908-9 
by  the  University  of  Virginia.  The  third  class  is  well 
exemplified  in  the  Southern  number  of  the  World's 
Work,  but  more  comprehensively  and  more  histor 
ically  in  "  The  South  in  the  Building  of  the  Nation." 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  461 

in 

The  literary  critic  of  the  present  must  be  careful 
not  to  confound  transitory  styles  with  real  and  abiding 
characteristics.  The  ante-bellum  Southerner  carefully 
avoided  any  estimate  of  locality  in  its  true  color;  he 
sedulously  ignored  the  condition.  But  now,  with  the 
increased  attention  paid  to  social  study,  the  writer 
naturally  turns  to  types  which  he  proceeds  to  estimate 
according  to  true  analysis,  being  faithful  to  motive 
and  to  psychology.  In  the  process  of  evolution,  some 
of  the  old  style  has  clung  to  the  new,  and  while  Rich 
ard  Malcolm  Johnston  (1822-1898),  in  his  portraiture 
of  Middle  Georgia  life,  may  be  said  to  belong  to  the 
same  school  as  Thomas  Nelson  Page,  since  he  began 
his  literary  work  as  late  as  1870,  he  nevertheless  grew 
up  with  the  tradition  of  the  school  of  Simms  and 
Kennedy,  besides  being  greatly  influenced  by  the  hu 
mor  of  Longstreet.  The  art  of  the  story-teller  is  not 
the  vital  content  of  Johnston,  though  his  humor  is  skill 
fully  abstracted  from  character  rather  than  from  broad 
situations,  such  as  are  in  "Georgia  Scenes."  His 
"  Dukesborough  Tales"  (1871)  are  valuable  for  the 
social  description  they  contain  of  a  civilization  which 
will  pass  away,  though  it  still  exists  among  the  poor 
whites  who  figure  in  the  stones  of  Will  Harben.  From 
a  personal  standpoint,  most  of  Johnston's  fiction  was  a 
reflection  of  his  own  experiences  during  the  years  he 
fluctuated  between  the  practice  of  law,  the  teaching  of 
school,  and  the  desultory  writing  of  stories ;  in  fact,  the 
long  list  of  books  to  his  credit,  apart  from  his  kindly, 
breezy,  casual  "Autobiography"  (1900),  are  simply 
genial  memories,  in  disguise,  of  his  own  career.  As 
an  essay  writer,  as  a  biographer  of  Stephens,  as  a 
collaborator  in  literary  work  with  William  Hand 
Browne,  he  displayed  acumen  and  enthusiasm,  but  his 
dominant  and  distinctive  mark  was  humor. 


462     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

In  his  delineation  of  Georgia  character,  Johnston  re 
tained  those  distinguishing  traits  which  are  so  effec 
tively,  so  naturally  handled  by  Mr.  Harben;  there  is 
more  of  the  seriousness  of  reality  in  the  latter — a 
seriousness  which  is  bound  up  in  crude  passion,  in 
ascetic  religion,  in  a  tenacious  hold  upon  traditional 
likes  and  dislikes;  a  seriousness  which  includes  full 
recognition  of  the  new  influences  subjecting  the  old 
customs  to  change. 

But  whereas  Johnston,  in  his  character  studies, 
sometimes  falls  into  the  ease  of  the  essay  writer,  Mr. 
Harben  is  purely  the  novelist  of  a  more  modern  school 
— not  quite  deft  enough  in  his  conception  and  execu 
tion  of  plot,  but  still  intensely  true  when  he  deals  with 
the  psychology  of  types,  such  as  are  to  be  found  in 
"  The  Georgians." 

The  one  desire  should  be  to  keep  our  Southern 
writers  in  the  channels  which  their  genius  or  their 
training  prompts  them  at  first  to  seek.  The  danger 
seems  to  be  that  pressure  from  the  outside  deflects 
their  natural  bent.  In  his  Northern  associations,  Mr. 
Harben  is  necessarily  subjected  to  influences  foreign 
to  the  soil  which  is  part  of  his  make-up.  One  can 
not  superimpose  foreign  elements  upon  a  strange  lo 
cality,  unless  these  elements  are  so  common  as  to 
transcend  their  particularity ;  nor  can  an  author  accus 
tom  himself  to  an  atmosphere  to  which  his  bearing  is 
wholly  unaccustomed.  This  struggle  of  opposing  in 
terests  has  modified  the  work  of  Miss  Ellen  Glasgow, 
has  made  some  of  her  later  novels  untrue  in  their 
striving  for  an  exotic  atmosphere,  and  in  their  psy 
chology  of  an  undigested  social  condition.  For  that 
reason,  "  The  Wheel  of  Life,"  which  was  a  pop 
ular  imitation  of  Mrs.  Wharton's  "The  House  of 
Mirth,"  proved  a  failure,  while  "  The  Ancient  Law  " 
and  "  The  Romance  of  a  Plain  Man  "  became  morbid 
because  of  a  psychological  method  which  Miss  Glasgow 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  463 

has  undoubtedly  adopted  after  saturating  herself  in 
foreign  literature  of  a  neurotic  type. 

The  Southerner  is  therefore  much  more  healthy 
when  content  to  apply  a  culture,  which  is  absorbed 
rather  than  outwardly  assumed,  to  a  soil  of  which  he 
is  part,  by  tradition  and  training.  When  Miss  Glas 
gow  first  turned  her  attention  to  her  section  as  a  social 
student,  she  produced  some  of  her  most  effective  work, 
best  emphasized  in  "  The  Voice  of  the  People  " ;  she 
illustrated  most  satisfactorily  her  power  to  combine 
the  sentiment  of  despair  with  that  of  chivalry  and 
romance,  in  her  stirring  record  of  "  The  Battle 
ground."  Perhaps  her  nearest  approach  to  an  epic 
sweep  of  the  soil  is  in  "  The  Deliverance,"  which,  in 
delineation  of  character,  in  description  of  the  tobacco 
fields,  in  the  traditions  of  Southern  temperament,  ranks 
among  the  few  great  American  novels.  Signifi 
cantly,  these  few  novels  all  deal  with  phases  of  the 
American  soil — the  hemp  of  Allen's  "  The  Reign  of 
Law,"  the  wheat  of  Norris's  "  The  Octopus,"  the 
moral  fiber  of  Hawthorne's  "  The  Scarlet  Letter." 

Miss  Glasgow,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  will  return  to  her 
field ;  for  the  South  is  still  rich  in  unworked  possibili 
ties,  where  psychology  may  have  as  free  play  and 
where  the  combinations  of  motives  and  passions  are  as 
numerous  as  elsewhere.  It  is  a  question  as  to  whether 
the  democratization  which  is  working  in  the  South 
to-day  has  a  right  to  deflect  the  intensive  study  and 
realistic  observation  of  the  Southern  writer  from 
familiar  locality.  The  poetic  quality  of  James  Lane 
Allen's  "  Kentucky  Cardinal "  ripened  into  a  deeper 
and  more  abiding  examination  of  the  evolution  of 
life  in  "The  Reign  of  Law,"  but  lately  has  lost  grip 
of  the  sound  condition  of  character  in  a  misty  sym 
bolism  self-consciously  displayed  in  the  first  of  a  tril 
ogy,  called  "  The  Bride  of  the  Mistletoe."  We  may 
ponder  the  fact  as  to  whether  such  deflection  is  a  result 


464    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

of  a  more  broadening  culture,  or  whether  it  is  due  to 
the  obvious  cause  that  so  many  of  our  Southern  writ 
ers  are  living  North.  Undoubtedly  Mr.  Page's  resi 
dence  in  Washington. has  had  some  appreciable  effect 
on  his  last  story,  "John  Marvel,  Assistant." 

This  digression  from  the  logical  sequence  of  lit 
erary  development  is  purposely  done  to  arrive  at  the 
conclusion  that  democratization,  as  it  applies  to  litera 
ture,  virtually  means  a  deepening  realization  of  social 
and  economic  condition,  and  does  not  demand  the  re- 
linquishment  of  environment.  The  Southern  liter 
ature  of  the  present — and  by  that  we  mean  since  the 
Centennial  year — is  distinctly  one  of  locality,  and  sev 
eral  novelists,  in  order  to  attach  themselves  to  their 
State,  have  preceded  much  of  their  fiction  with  essays 
bordering  on  the  style  of  social  studies.  Such,  for  in 
stance,  are  Cable's  "The  Creoles  of  Louisiana,"  an 
historical  sketch  of  much  color  and  value;  Allen's 
"  Blue-Grass  Region  of  Kentucky,"  a  survey  of  social 
weight,  and  as  full  of  nature  painting  as  "  The  Reign 
of  Law  " ;  Page's  "  The  Old  South,"  adequately  pre- 
sentative  of  old-time  flavor;  Grace  King's  "New 
Orleans,"  and  other  historical  studies  indicative  of 
social  interest,  like  Fox's  articles  on  the  Kentucky 
mountaineer. 

The  tendency  of  the  Southern  mind  through  many 
generations  has  placed  Southern  fiction  in  a  rut;  the 
difficulty  in  overcoming  this  has  been  partly  due  to 
the  popularity  and  artistry  of  Mr.  Page.  The  very 
tenacity  with  which  the  South  has  held  to  certain 
literary  forms  marks  a  distinctly  Southern  school  of 
novelist,  and  we  detect  a  mid-period  between  the  old 
and  the  new,  best  exemplified  in  Charles  Egbert  Crad- 
dock,  who  combines  a  stately  redundancy  of  style  with 
a  realistic  understanding  of  condition.  But  the  Cava 
lier  spirit  is  uppermost  in  the  art  of  the  Southern 


ELLEN    GLASGOW. 
By  courtesy  of  the  Macmillan  Company. 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  465 

writer,  and  its  persistency,  we  repeat,  is  largely  due 
to  the  influence  of  Mr.  Page. 

The  vital  consciousness  of  race-mixture  has  not  yet 
impressed  itself  upon  Southern  literature.  Mr.  Cable 
picturesquely  dealt  with  one  strain  in  his  Creole  life 
which  forms  the  essential  background  for  such  dra 
matic  stories  as  "  The  Grandissimes "  and  "  Dr. 
Sevier."  And  whatever  critics  may  say  to  the  con 
trary,  no  more  exquisite  examples  of  the  delicate  art 
of  story-telling  are  to  be  had  than  those  contained  in 
"  Old  Creole  Days."  Nor  does  there  seem  to  be  a 
diminishing  of  Mr.  Cable's  power  to  produce  the  effec 
tive  atmosphere  of  Creole  life,  which  may  not  be  true 
atmosphere,  but  is  none  the  less  vivid  and  carrying; 
for  "The  Cavalier"  (1901)  does  not  possess  any  of 
the  virility,  of  the  terse  power,  of  "  Kinkaid's  Bat 
tery"  (1908). 

Another  phase  of  Southern  life  that  has  received 
treatment  has  been  the  poor  white  of  the  mountain, 
whom  Charles  Egbert  Craddock  (Mary  Noailles  Mur- 
free)  made  her  own  pioneer  province.  For,  while  in 
the  novels  of  Simms  and  Kennedy  and  Beverley 
Tucker,  the  class  pushed  from  the  tide-water  district 
was  occasionally  referred  to,  there  was  no  human 
sympathy  bestowed  upon  the  picture.  From  the  time 
Mr.  Howells  and  Mr.  Aldrich,  as  editors  of  the  At 
lantic  Monthly,  mistook  their  contributor,  under  her 
nom  de  plume,  for  a  man,  until  the  present,  Miss  Mur- 
free  has  never  forsaken  the  essential  outlines  of  her 
locality.  If  her  types  are  contrasted  with  those  of 
John  Fox,  Jr.,  who  is  as  much  her  follower  as  Miss 
King  is  of  Mr.  Cable,  it  will  be  seen  how  different  the 
pioneer  mountain  life  is  already  from  the  mountain  folk 
who  have  in  general  become  accustomed  to  the  pres 
ence  of  law,  and  who  are  beginning,  with  the  approach 
of  education,  to  recognize  the  necessity  for  order. 


466    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

The  moonshiner,  the  peculiar  supremacy  of  the  cir 
cuit  rider,  the  isolated  blacksmith,  the  crossroads  shop 
keeper,  are  changing,  but  not  before  Charles  Egbert 
Craddock  has  caught  a  likeness  on  a  canvas  which 
adds  distinction  to  American  letters,  no  less  than  to 
Southern  literature. 

The  third  class  in  local  life  is  the  negro,  who  has 
through  tribal  bequeathment  engrafted  upon  South 
ern  soil  a  distinct  music  and  an  exceptional  folk-lore. 
No  one  has  ventured  to  trespass  upon  the  ground 
which  Joel  Chandler  Harris  stamped  with  his  own 
genius  between  1876  and  1880  in  "Uncle  Remus." 
We  doubt,  in  the  sum  total  of  Southern  literary  activ 
ity  for  the  past  forty  years,  whether  any  more  perma 
nent  contribution  has  been  made  to  America  than  the 
record  of  the  folk-lore  which  sprang  up  among  the 
negroes  of  different  types,  peopling  the  rice  planta 
tions  and  cotton  districts  during  slavery. 

There  are  a  fourth  and  a  fifth  class  which  will  not 
be  deeply  realized  by  the  Southern  writer  until  the 
social  interest  of  the  student  has  paved  the  way  with 
investigation ;  the  poor  white,  the  clay-eater,  sporadi 
cally  treated  by  such  an  author  as  Norah  Davis,  of 
Alabama,  has  thus  far  only  attracted  Mr.  Harben,  and 
he  is  a  type  of  Southerner  who  is  partly  conscious  of 
the  necessity  for  melodramatic  incident  which  detracts 
from  the  intensive  psychology  of  his  characters.  The 
economic  man  has  not  been  truly  conceived,  because 
he  is  still  reaching  out  for  his  economic  place. 

IV 

When  one  gives  each  phase  of  Southern  life  here 
suggested  minute  consideration,  it  is  seen  how  inade 
quate  a  cursory  glance  must  necessarily  be.  Save  for 
the  sketchy  and  suggestive  "Louisiana  Studies"  by 
Alcce  Fortier,  the  Creole  life  of  the  Lower  South  has 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  467 

not  received  that  systematized  study  which  it  deserves 
and  which  the  material  in  the  Howard  Memorial 
Library  of  New  Orleans  warrants.  Here  is  a  field 
for  original  investigation,  which  some  student  of  Tu- 
lane  University  should  consider  a  self-appointed  task. 
For  the  novels  by  Cable  and  the  "  Balcony  Stories  " 
of  Miss  King  are  not  sufficient  guarantee  of  the  pres 
ervation  of  the  Creole  flavor  and  of  the  causes  for  that 
life  which,  during  so  many  years,  remained  distinct 
(where  the  Gringo  element  of  California  was  quickly 
absorbed),  and  which,  whether  in  the  fiction  of  Cable's 
"Madame  Delphine"  or  in  the  facts  of  Cable's 
"  Strange  True  Stories  of  Louisiana,"  or  in  the  simple 
juvenile  narratives  of  Mrs.  C.  V.  S.  Jamison's  "  Lady 
Jane  "  and  "  Toinette's  Philip,"  stands  emphasized  by 
strength  as  well  as  by  attractiveness,  by  permanent 
contribution  to  intellectual  culture  as  well  as  by  polit 
ical  service  and  social  charm. 

It  is  only  just  now  that  the  American  student  is 
awake  to  the  necessity  for  preserving  such  details  in 
the  spirit  of  investigation.  The  novels  of  Craddock 
and  Fox  are  saturated  with  instances  of  the  folk  beliefs 
and  customs  of  the  mountain  people,  but  there  should 
be  a  more  systematic  study  of  these  peculiarities,  since 
they  are  the  very  heart  and  blood  of  a  peculiar  type, 
having  penetrated  to  the  core  of  life,  affecting  their 
speech,  preserving  old  English  forms,  nursing  feuds 
which  descend  through  the  pulsing  of  blood  rather 
than  through  the  conviction  of  right  and  wrong — a 
conviction  which  comes  with  reason. 

The  mountain  road  kept  civilization  away  and  pre 
served  the  dialect  and  the  social  custom  of  the  peo 
ple  ;  and  even  as  there  is  the  Saxon  directness  to  their 
speech,  there  is  likewise  the  virgin  Saxon  strength 
to  their  minds,  just  being  touched  into  active  life. 
These  people  have  their  especial  amusements,  their 
religious  intensity,  their  strict  morality,  and  their 


468     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

peculiar  dispensation  of  justice,  their  loud  expressions 
of  fleeting  emotion,  their  superstitions  of  a  Middle- 
Age  type;  all  these  conditions  exist  in  the  mountains 
of  Tennessee  and  of  the  Carolinas.  From  such  en 
vironment  Charles  Egbert  Craddock's  most  noted 
novel,  "  The  Prophet  of  the  Great  Smoky  Mountain  " 
(1885),  and  John  Fox's  most  artistically  conceived 
story,  "The  Trail  of  the  Lonesome  Pine"  (1908), 
were  drawn. 

The  note  of  greatest  originality  in  Southern  liter 
ature  is  the  element  of  folk-lore,  which  has  yet  to  be 
worked  in  its  relation  to  the  poor  whites,  and  the  ele 
ments  of  folk-song  and  of  folk-lore  which,  in  their 
relation  to  the  negroes,  have  been  productive  of  a 
native  body  of  legend.  Mr.  Harris's  introduction  to 
the  1883  edition  of  "Nights  with  Uncle  Remus"  is 
significant,  but  perhaps  the  following  paragraph  is 
most  immediately  demanding  of  the  student's  atten 
tion,  inasmuch  as  it  contains  a  warning: 

"  There  is  good  reason  to  suppose  .  .  ."  so  he 
wrote,  "that  many  of  the  negroes  born  near  the  close 
of  the  war  or  since,  are  unfamiliar  with  the  great  body 
of  their  own  folk-lore.  ...  In  the  tumult  and 
confusion  incident  to  their  changed  condition,  they 
have  had  few  opportunities  to  become  acquainted  with 
that  wonderful  collection  of  tales  which  their  ances 
tors  told  in  the  kitchens  and  cabins  of  the  Old  Planta 
tion.  The  older  negroes  are  as  fond  of  the  legends 
as  ever,  but  the  occasion,  or  the  excuse,  for  telling 
them  becomes  less  frequent  year  by  year." 

Yet  the  years  have  not  added  much  to  that  which 
Mr.  Harris  himself  did  in  the  true  spirit  of  investiga 
tion,  and  with  an  art  which  preserved  the  real  African 
flavor  of  the  originals  at  the  same  time  that  it  added, 
in  an  unobtrusive  manner,  the  rich  background  of 
plantation  life  in  Middle  Georgia  before  the  war.  Yet 
the  necessity  for  the  proper  valuation  of  negro  folk- 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  469 

lore  and  folk-song  becomes  more  apparent  as  the 
plantation  "  hand  "  and  the  pure  negroes  grow  numer 
ically  less.  Even  civilization  is  having  an  appreciable 
effect  upon  the  forms  in  which  the  lore  and  music  are 
preserved.  No  better  illustration  can  be  found  of  the 
fact  that  a  folk-song  ceases  to  be  a  folk-song  as  soon 
as  it  is  modified  by  conscious  composition  than  in  the 
harmonized  and  softened  glees  of  the  Hampton  Insti 
tute  students. 

It  is  the  popular  belief  that  the  negro  has  ceased  to 
sing  because  the  economic  life  has  blighted  his  true 
savage  instinct,  his  irresponsible,  careless  emotional 
ism.  But  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  old-time  colored 
house  servant  and  the  faithful  "mammy"  are  giving 
way  before  the  new  conditions,  and  with  them  are 
disappearing  those  melodies,  cradle  songs,  hymns,  and 
secular  chants  of  freedom  which  Dvorak  called  the 
only  American  music  of  any  worth.  These  are  dis 
tinctive  for  their  form,  for  the  peculiar  pulsing  value 
of  their  repetition,  for  their  religious  attitude  which  is 
an  admixture  of  solemnity  with  abandon,  of  wailing 
with  exhortation,  of  tonal  color  with  bodily  motion, — 
upon  which,  at  times,  the  rhythm  seems  to  depend, — of 
humor  with  terror,  as  in  the  negro  conception  of  Satan. 
Paul  Laurence  Dunbar's  sweet  lyrics  of  cabin  and 
field  faintly  suggest  the  plaintive  call  of  the  poetic  side 
of  the  negro;  his  are  not,  however,  constitutionally, 
African  melodies ;  they  are  polished,  and  have  none  of 
the  tribal  quality  of  the  vocero.  Howard  Weedon's 
shadows  of  a  departing  negro  life,  in  their  portraiture, 
bring  out  the  picturesque  quality  of  those  types  we  all 
know,  who  have  ever  been  on  a  Southern  plantation. 

But  after  all,  the  folk-lore  and  folk-song  are  ex 
pressions  deeply  grounded  in  nature,  and  only  changed 
when  the  conditions  which  fostered  them  become  ex 
tinct.  Investigators  have  shown,  for  example,  that 
the  Civil  War  did  little  for  negro  song,  perhaps  here 


470    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE   SOUTH 

and  there  suggesting  a  sentiment  which  was  more  imi 
tation  than  understanding.  In  the  days  of  moving 
armies,  when  the  land  shook  with  the  tread  of  soldiers, 
it  is  natural  that  at  camp-meeting  the  negro  should 
sing,  "  When  the  general  roll  is  called,  I'll  be  there ! " 

The  negro  is  still  superstitious:  he  still  moves  best 
in  rhythmic  time,  whether  in  the  cotton  field  or  on  the 
railroad  track;  he  still  regards  the  locomotive  and  the 
boat,  especially  if  he  lives  inland,  with  awe  and  rever 
ence.  His  pick  or  spade  is  sent  deeper  into  the  earth 
when  stressed  with  a  musical  note,  his  religion  is  still 
more  effective  when,  with  bodily  twisting  and  shouts, 
he  forces  himself  into  a  trance;  his  theology  is  still 
that  of  the  heart  rather  than  of  the  intellect.  Yet  his 
pristine  simplicity  is  passing  away. 

Such  negro  writers  as  Charles  W.  Chesnutt  have 
had  no  appreciable  effect  in  establishing  a  permanent 
body  of  negro  literature  in  the  South,  and  the  many 
novels  that  introduce  the  negro  do  so  in  a  conventional 
manner.  Ruth  McEnery  Stuart  in  "  Sonny "  and 
Harry  Stillwell  Edwards  in  "  The  Two  Runaways " 
have  successfully  caught  the  characteristics  of  the  de 
pendant,  who  is  scarcely  removed  from  the  condition 
of  slavery,  a  picture  which  does  not  depart  from,  but 
only  reinforces  the  technical  and  artistic  excellences 
of  Harris's  "  Free  Joe." 

The  general  feeling  regarding  the  fate  of  Southern 
fiction  at  the  present  time  is  that  it  is  on  the  verge  of 
a  radical  change;  it  is  more  careful  in  its  use  of  his 
tory  in  such  novels  as  Mary  Johnston's  "To  Have 
and  to  Hold,"  "Audrey,"  and  "Lewis  Rand,"  though 
it  still  retains,  to  a  large  degree,  the  sentiment  and 
feeling  which  have  always  marked  Southern  literature. 
In  fact,  the  emotional  color — which  includes  the  un 
shakable  religious  faith  of  generations — still  grips  the 
South.  We  should  welcome  any  body  of  letters  which 
represents  so  sweetly  the  features  of  a  past  day.  Even 


THE    NEW    SOUTH  471 

though  the  issues  be  dead,  which  are  graphically  set 
down  in  Page's  "  Red  Rock  "  and  Harris's  "  Gabriel 
Tolliver  " — both  strong  stories  of  Reconstruction, — we 
must  remember  that  the  time  will  come  when  the  face 
of  fiction  will  be  far  different,  when  we  shall  look 
back  upon  this  first-hand  treatment  of  a  worthy  civil 
ization,  as  we  regard  the  faded  daguerreotype  of  crin 
oline  and  hoop-skirt  days. 

There  are  writers  whose  activities  are  broader  than 
a  section,  yet  whose  sentiment,  when  it  is  allowed 
natural  play,  harks  back  to  the  land  of  its  birth.  No 
one  in  the  future  will  discount  the  permanence  of  F. 
Hopkinson  Smith's  "  Colonel  Carter  of  Cartersville." 
There  are  writers  whose  lineage  predestines  the  style 
and  flavor  of  their  thought.  'No  one  could  possibly 
challenge  the  identification  of  Mrs.  Burton  Harrison's 
"Flower  de  Hundred"  or  "The  Carlyles "  with 
locality. 

Yet,  at  its  best,  Southern  fiction  cannot  escape  be 
ing  grouped  under  definite  heads.  There  is  a  quality 
to  Mrs.  M.  E.  M.  Davis,  to  Molly  Elliott  Seawell,  to 
Amelie  Rives,  to  Sarah  Barnwell  Elliott, — and  per 
haps  to  Mrs.  Frances  Hodgson  Burnett,  if  we  wish  to 
be  over-inclusive, — which  bulks  in  feeling,  whether 
intended  for  adults  or  for  young  people.  It  is  an  en 
tertaining  literature,  pleasurable  in  its  associations, 
but  far  from  vital,  even  in  its  commonplaceness. 

There  is  still  that  latitude  to  the  Southern  author's 
work  which  allows  him  easily  to  figure  as  poet,  essay 
ist,  and  novelist — all  in  one.  This  is  a  failing  every 
where,  in  fact,  and  sometimes  it  is  an  agreeable  fail 
ing,  for  the  verse  of  Miss  Glasgow  is  strong  in  its 
spiritual  position.  Afe  a  poet,  Mr.  Page  is  pleasing, 
and  as  an  essayist,  genial  and  picturesque  in  an  impres 
sionistic  manner.  The  Southerner  still  regards  liter 
ature  as  a  dainty  accomplishment ;  this  is  especially  so 
in  the  realm  of  poetry,  where  nothing  large  is  being 


472    THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

done,  but  where  delicate  sentiments  reflect  a  past 
chivalry,  and  where  lines  are  fragrant  with  the  odor 
of  the  Southern  landscape. 

Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  miniature 
impressions — philosophical  and  descriptive — in  the 
quatrains  of  William  Hamilton  Hayne  and  Father 
Tabb;  it  is  hardly  requisite  to  do  more  than  record 
the  names  of  Samuel  Minturn  Peck,  Robert  Loveman, 
Danske  Dandridge,  and  Lizette  Woodworth  Reese, 
whose  verses  have  the  lyric  quality  which  is  refined,  but 
which  escapes  the  sustained  note  of  great  song.  In  the 
newspaper  world,  Frank  L.  Stanton  has  brought  com 
fort  and  cheer  to  the  untutored,  and  in  forcing  his 
Muse  to  its  daily  task,  he  has  flashed  forth  sparks  of 
exceptional  brightness.  Irwin  Russell  (1853-1879),  in 
his  short-lived  career,  won  reputation  for  his  metrical 
delineation  of  negro  character. 

In  a  larger  sense,  Madison  Cawein,  the  laureate  of 
Kentucky,  may  be  regarded  as  the  most  distinctive 
poet  in  the  South  to-day.  Much  of  his  early  verse, 
as  Edmund  Gosse  remarks,  suffers  from  the  lack  of 
criticism  which  kept  the  South  for  so  long  a  time  in  a 
provincial  state.  But  while,  in  the  numerous  slim 
volumes  to  Mr.  Cawein's  credit,  there  is  the  same  pan 
theistic  note,  and  while  there  is  an  ever-recurrent  use 
of  identifying  features  of  landscape,  the  total  effect 
is  atmospheric — aloof  from  the  world  of  men.  In  his 
gaze  he  is  voluptuous,  but  there  is  a  feeling  that  the 
passion  is  cold ;  he  is  contemplative,  impressionistic, 
and  possesses  Dorothy  WdWsworth's  love  for  the 
moods  of  nature,  without  the  reflection  that  follows. 
Some  of  his  poems  are  inspired  by  reading;  certainly 
his  philosophy — if  it  is  clearly  defined  to  himself — is 
worked  out  from  book-learning.  His  one  original 
bearing  is  his  intimate  consciousness  of  nature.  But, 
as  to  his  aliveness,  one  is  inclined  to  telieve,  with  a  re 
viewer  on  the  New  York  Times,  that,  "  in  spite  of 


JOHN     FOX,    JR. 
By  courtesy  of  Charles  Scribner'i  Sons. 


THE   NEW    SOUTH  473 

his  modern  accent,  he  always  manages  in  his  poetry  to 
awaken  the  spirit  of  old  ideals,  illusions,  faiths,  and 
superstitions.'' 

v 

The  supreme  significance  of  literary  history  is  one 
with  the  meaning  of  life;  it  adapts  itself  to  the  condi 
tions  of  time;  its  form  of  expression  is  fluid  in  so  far 
as  the  mental  culture  of  the  people  is  plastic.  It  is 
unwise  to  utter  strictures  at  close  view;  that  is  why 
the  authors  representative  of  the  South  to-day  have 
been  so  lightly  touched  upon.  It  is  not  probable  that 
an  intellectual  cataclysm  will  occur  in  the  Southern 
States  so  suddenly  as  to  alter  the  mental  texture  of 
the  work  already  accomplished  by  Mr.  Cable,  Mr. 
Page,  or  Mr.  Allen.  The  younger  generation  are  in 
the  maelstrom  whose  undertow  is  strong  and  signifi 
cant — all  the  more  since  it  cannot  be  seen.  You 
will  find  many  traces,  in  this  new  order,  of  the  future 
literary  technique  and  intellectual  interest;  they  are 
the  traces  which  distinguish  John  Fox  from  Miss  Mur- 
free,  and  which  dot  the  pages  of  Owen  Wister's  "  The 
Virginian  "  and  "  Lady  Baltimore,"  and  which  appear 
in  special  paragraphs  throughout  the  stories  of  Miss 
Glasgow.  From  these  two  writers  one  looks  for 
much,  provided  they  do  not  mistake  the  true  meaning 
— social  and  economic — of  democracy  and  broader 
culture. 

In  a  critique  on  the  work  of  Mr.  Harben,  there  oc 
curs  a  statement  of  Mr.  Howells  which  touches  a  vital 
spot  in  the  character  of  the  Southern  people.  In  ef 
fect,  the  statement  commented  upon  the  absence  of 
the  infidel  among  the  many  Georgian  types  depicted 
by  Mr.  Harben.  This  very  absence  of  the  religious 
iconoclast  measures  the  intensity  of  that  spiritual  con 
servatism  which  still  persists  through  the  South. 
Science  has  not  disturbed  the  bulwark,  shifting  condi- 


474     THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  SOUTH 

tion  has  not  unsettled  faith,  commercial  activity  has 
not  dulled  the  religious  sentiment.  Mr.  Allen,  when 
he  first  wrote  "The  Reign  of  Law,"  which  combated 
the  narrow  religious  views  of  the  past,  was  met  with 
determined  opposition  from  President  McGarvey,  of 
the  College  of  the  Bible  in  the  University  of  Kentucky. 
The  arguments  may  be  passed  by,  though  the  little 
pamphlet  which  contains  them  is  suggestive;  what 
needs  to  be  pondered  over  by  the  student  of  conditions 
in  the  South  is  the  presence  of  a  conservative  theology 
which  is  not  yet  willing — or  at  least  was  not  in  1900 — 
to  take  full  cognizance  of  the  intellectual  trend  of  the 
age.  There  is  a  compromise  between  the  dogmatic 
theologian  and  the  dogmatic  infidel  whom  Mr.  Allen 
took  for  his  hero.  Yet  the  reaction  has  to  come  in  the 
course  of  intellectual  progression. 

No  national  point  of  view  should  take  from  the 
South  its  characteristics  or  individuality,  due  to  en 
vironment  and  inheritance;  the  broader  culture  should 
only  deepen  and  enrich  those  permanent  traits  which 
must  be  protected  and  nurtured  for  years  to  come. 
The  essential  genius  of  the  Southern  people  has  been 
leadership;  history  shows  this  was  maintained  even 
against  social  and  economic  odds.  Once  more  the 
South  is  in  a  position — through  politically  broad  con 
ception — to  reclaim  the  task  of  leadership.  That  is 
the  next  step — if  it  is  not  coincident  with  the  clear 
utterance  of  a  vigorous  criticism — in  the  evolution  of 
the  New  South.  Once  let  a  general  consciousness  of 
this  power  become  wider  spread,  and  there  is  no  fear 
that  the  literature  will  not  be  a  just  and  full  expres 
sion  of  the  life  it  represents. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

[The  following  bibliography  does  not  attempt  in  any  way  to  record  the 
works  of  the  writers  under  discussion;  it  only  notes  those  references^  which 
have  been  of  assistance  in  reaching  some  idea  of  the  social,  economic,  and 
political  attitude  of  the  Southern  People.  No  effort  has  been  made  to  in 
dicate  the  many  Southern  periodicals  that  have  been  consulted,  or  to  men 
tion  the  "  Proceedings  "  of  the  yarious  Historical  Societies.  Already,  the 
present  list  has  exceeded  its  limit,  and  were  the  critical  articles  of  a  lit 
erary  character  to  be  indicated,  together  with  the  editions  of  "  Works," 
the  bibliography  would  be  swelled  to  undue  proportions  for  a  book  of  this 
character.  It  has  been  my  one  desire  to  present  to  the  reader  sufficient 
data  to  afford  every  opportunity  of  reaching  a  full  and  comprehensive 
understanding  of  the  conditions  from  which  Southern  literature  has  ema 
nated.— M.  J.  M.] 

BOOKS 

Allen,  James  Lane— Blue  Grass  Region  of  Kentucky,  and  other 

Kentucky   Articles.     1900. 
Atlanta  University — The  College-bred  Negro ;  Report  of  a  Social 

Study.     Publications,  No.  5.     1900. 
Mortality    among    Negroes    in    Cities.     [Ed.,    T.    N. 

Chase.]     Publications,  No.   I.     1903.     [Report,  May  26,  1896.] 
Some   Efforts   of   American   Negroes   for  their  own 

Social   Betterment.     Publications,   No.  3.     1898. 
•  The  Negro  in  Business.     [List  of  Negro  Newspapers, 

pp.  72-74].     Publications,  No.  4.     1899. 

Baker,  Ray  Stannard — Following  the  Color  Line.     N.  Y.,  1908. 
Baldwin,  Joseph  G. — Flush  Times  in  Alabama  and  Mississippi: 

A  Series  of  Sketches.     San  Francisco,   1876. 
• Sketches  of  Party  Leaders :  Jefferson,  Hamilton,  Clay, 

Jackson,  and  Randolph.     N.  Y.,  1855. 

Ballagh,  James  Curtis — Introduction  to  Southern  Economic  His 
tory:  The  Land   System.     Am.   Hist.  Assoc.   Annual  Report. 

1897.    pp.  99-129. 
Slavery  in  Virginia,  A  History  of.    Jno.  Hop.  Univ. 

Studies.     Extra   v.   24.     1902. 
Southern  Economic  History:  Tariff  and  Public  Lands, 

American  Hist.  Assoc.     Annual  Report.     1898,  pp.  221-63. 
.  White  Servitude  in  the  Colony  of  Virginia.    Jno.  Hop. 

Univ.     Studies  in  Hist,  and  Polit.  Science.    Ser.  113,  nos.  6-7. 

1895. 
Barnaby,  Rev.  Andrew — Travels  through  the  Middle  Settlements 

in  North  America,  in  the  years  1759  and  1760,  with  Observa 
tions    upon    the    State    of   the    Colonies.     [3rd.    ed.    Voyage 

begun  in   I7S9-]     London,   1798. 
Barton,  William  E. — Old  Plantation  Hymns.     Boston,  1899. 

475 


476  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Baskerville,    William    Malone — Southern   Writers:    Biographical 

and  Critical  Studies.     2  vols.     Tenn.,  1898-1903. 
Bassett,  John  Spencer — Constitutional  Beginnings  of  North  Caro 
lina  (1663-1729).     Jno.  Hop.  Univ.  Studies  in  Hist,  and  Polit. 

Science.     Vol.  12,  no.  3.   1894. 
The  Federal  System.     (American  Nation  series,  vol. 

II.)   1906. 
Regulators  of  North  Carolina  (1765-1771).     American 

Hist  Assoc.  Report.     1894,  pp.  141-212. 
The  Relation  between  the  Virginian   Planter  and  the 

London  Merchant.     Am.  Hist.  Assoc.  1:551-575.     No.  XVII. 

1901. 

Slavery  and  Servitude  in  the  Colony  of  North  Caro 
lina.     Jno.    Hop.   Univ.    Studies   in   Hist,   and   Polit.   Science. 

Vol.  14.     Nos.  4-5.    1896. 
Beard,  James  Melville— K.  K.  K.  Sketches.     Treating  the  more 

important    Events    of   the    Ku-Klux-Klan    Movements    in    the 

South.     Phila.,  1877. 

Bellows,  H.  W.,  D.D.— Woman's  Work  in  the  Civil  War:  Intro 
duction  to.     [Co-authors,  Brockett,  L.  P.,  and  Vaughan,  Mrs, 

M.  C.J     Phila.,  1867. 
Benton,  Thomas  H. — Thirty  Years'  View;  or,  The  History  and 

Workings  of  the  American  Government  (1820-1850).    2  vols. 

N.  Y.,  1879- 
Benjamin,  Judah  P.— Biography  of.     By  Pierce  Butler.     [Amer. 

Crisis  Biographies.)     N.  Y.,  1907. 
Blair,   Commissary   James — Life  of.     By  Daniel   Esten   Motley. 

Jno.  Hop.  Univ.  Studies.     Ser.  XIX.,  no.  10.     1901. 
Bledsoe,  Albert  Taylor— Essay  on  Liberty  and  Slavery.     Phila., 

1856. 
Is  Davis  a  Traitor;  or,  Was  Secession  a  Constitutional 

Right  Previous  to  the  War  of  1861  ?     Baltimore,  1866. 
Brackett,    Jeffrey    Richardson — Notes    on    the    Progress    of    the 

Colored  People  of  Maryland  since  the  War.     Jno.  Hop.  Univ. 

Studies  in  Hist,  and  Polit.  Science.    Vol.  8.     1890.    Baltimore. 
Bradshaw,   Sidney   Ernest — On   Southern   Poetry   Prior  to   1860. 

[Dissertation:   Faculty  of  the  University  of  Virginia.]      1900. 
Brewer,    W. — Alabama:    her   History,   Resources,    War   Record, 

and  Public  Men,  from  1540  to  1872.     Montgomery,  1872. 
Brock,  R.  A. — The  Colonial  Virginian:  An   Address  before  the 

Geographical    and    Historical    Society    of    Richmond    College. 

October  13,  1891. 
Brown,    John    Mason — The    Political    Beginnings    of    Kentucky. 

Louisville— Filspn  Club.     Vol.  6.     1889. 
Brown,  William  Garrott — The  Lower  South  in  American  History. 

N.  Y.,  1902. 
Browne,  William  Hand— Maryland :  The  History  of  a  Palatinate. 

[Amer.  Commonwealth  Series.]     Boston,  1884. 
George  Calvert  and  Cecilius  Calvcrt;   Barons   Balti 
more  of  Baltimore.     [Makers  of  America  Series.]     1890. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  477 

Bruce,  Philip  Alexander — Economic  History  of  Virginia  in  the 
Seventeenth  Century;  an  Inquiry  into  the  Material  Condition 
of  the  People,  based  upon  Original  and  Contemporaneous 
Records.  2  yols.  1907. 

'• —  Institutional  History  of  Virginia  in  the  Seventeenth 

Century;  an  Inquiry  into  the  Religious,  Moral,  Educational, 
Legal,  Military,  and  Political  Condition  of  the  People  based 
upon  Original  and  Contemporaneous  Records.  2  vols.  N.  Y., 
1910. 

The  Plantation  Negro  as  a  Freeman.  [Questions  of 

the  Day.  No.  57.]  1889. 

The  Rise  of  the  New  South.  [The  Hist  of  N.  A., 

vol.  XVII.] 

Burgess,  John  William — Reconstruction  and  the  Constitution 
(1866-1876).  [Amer.  Hist.  Series.]  N.  Y.,  1902. 

Byrd,  Col.  William,  of  Westover — The  Writings  of.  Edited  by 
John  Spencer  Bassett  N.  Y.,  1901. 

Cable,  George  W. — The  Silent  South,  together  with  the  Freed- 
man's  Case  in  Equity  and  the  Convict  Lease  System.  N.  Y., 
1899.  [See  also  Cable's  history  and  stories  of  the  Creoles.] 

Cairnes,  J.  E. — The  Slave  Power:  its  Character,  Career,  and 
Probable  Designs.  Being  an  Attempt  to  Explain  the  Real 
Issue  Involved  in  the  American  Contest.  London,  1862. 

Cairns,  William  B. — On  the  Development  of  American  Literature 
from  1815  to  1833,  with  especial  reference  to  Periodicals. 
University  or  Wisconsin.  Bulletin.  Philol.  and  Lit.  Series, 
vol.  I,  pp.  1-87.  1898. 

Calhoun,  John  C. — Life  of.  By  Gaillard  Hunt.  [Am.  Crisis 
Biog.]  Phila.,  1908.  [Bibliography.] 

Works.     Edited  by   R.   K.   Cralle.     6  vols.     N.   Y., 

1874- 

Life  of.  By  H.  E.  Von  Hoist.  [Am.  Statesmen 

Series.]  Boston,  1883. 

Callahan,  James  Morton — Diplomatic  Relations  of  the  Confeder 
ate  States  with  England  (1861-1865).  Am.  Hist.  Assoc. 
Annual  Report.  1898,  pp.  265-83. 

Diplomatic  History  of  the  Southern  Confederacy.  Jno. 

Hop.  Univ.  Shaw  Lectures,  1900.  Bait.,  1901. 

Campbell,  Charles — History  of  the  Colony  and  Ancient  Dominion 
of  Virginia.  1860. 

Channing,  Edward — Town  and  County  Government  in  the  Eng 
lish  Colonies  of  N.  A.  Jno.  Hop.  Studies  in  Hist,  and  Polit. 
Science.  2:1-57.  No.  10.  1884.  Bait,  1884. 

Chastellux,  Marquis  de,  Francois  Jean — Voyage  de  M.  le  Cheva 
lier  de  Chastellux  en  Amerique.  1785. 

Confederate  Publications  in  the  Confederate  Museum,  Bibliog 
raphy  of  some.  Calendar  of  Confederate  Papers.  1908, 
pp.  501-65. 

Christy,  David — Cotton  is  King;  or,  The  Culture  of  Cotton,  and 
its  Relation  to  Agriculture,  Manufactures,  and  Commerce,  and 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

also  to  the  Free  Colored  People  of  the  United  States,  and  to 
those  who  hold  that  Slavery  is  in  itself  Sinful.  N.  Y.,  1856. 

Gaibome,  John  F.  H.~ Mississippi  as  a  Province,  Territory, 
and  State.  Miss.,  1880. 

Qarke,  James  Freeman — Memorial  and  Biographical  Sketches. 
Boston,  1878. 

Clay,  Mrs.  Clement— A  Belle  of  the  Fifties.  Memoirs  of  Mrs. 
Clay  of  Alabama,  covering  Social  and  Political  Life  in  Wash 
ington  and  the  South,  1853-66.  Gathered  and  edited  by  Ada 
Sterling.  N.  Y.,  1904. 

Clay,  Henry— Life  of.     By  George  D.  Prentice.     Hartford,  1831. 

Works  of.  Edited  by  Calvin  Colton.  Introductions 

by  T.  B.  Reed  and  William  McKinley.  10  vols.  N.  Y.,  1904. 

Life  of.  By  Carl  Schurz.  [Am.  Statesmen  Series.] 

2  vols.  Boston,  1887. 

Clemens,  Samuel  L.  [Mark  Twain.]  Life  on  the  Mississippi. 
Boston,  1883. 

Confederate  Constitution,  The.  An  Address  by  R.  H.  Smith. 
Mobile,  March  30,  1861. 

Confederate  States  of  America:  A  Compilation  of  the  Messages 
and  Papers  of  the  Confederacy,  including  the  Diplomatic  Cor 
respondence :  1861-1865.  Edited  by  James  D.  Richardson. 
Nashville,  1906. 

Conference  for  Education.  Published  by  Southern  Education 
Board.  1901-1909.  [Place  of  publication  changes.] 

Constitution  of  the  United  States,  Pamphlets  on  the.  Published 
during  its  Discussion  by  the  People.  1787-1788.  Edited,  with 
notes  and  bibliography,  by  Paul  Leicester  Ford.  Brooklyn, 
1888. 

Cooke,  John  Esten— Virginia.  A  History  of  the  People  With 
a  Supplementary  Chapter  by  William  Garrott  Brown.  Boston, 
1903. 

Wearing  of  the  Grey :  Personal  Portraits,  Scenes,  and 

Adventures  of  the  late  War,  with  dashing  charges,  toilsome 
marches,  sacrifices  and  sufferings  of  the  Boys  in  Grey.  N.  Y., 
1887. 

Coon,  Charles  L. — The  Beginnings  of  Public  Education  in  North 
Carolina.  A  Documentary  History  (1790-1840).  2  vols. 
Raleigh,  1910. 

Curry,  J.  L.  M.— Civil  History  of  the  Government  of  the  Con 
federate  States;  with  some  personal  reminiscences.  Richmond, 
1901. 

History  of  the  Peabodv  Education  Fund.     1898. 

Curry  Memorial.     Conference  of  Education.     1903. 

— ; Southern  States  of  the  American  Union.  Considered 

in  their  Relation  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
and  to  the  resulting  Union.  Richmond,  1895. 

Cutler,  James  E. — Lynch  Law:  An  Investigation  into  the  History 
of  Lynching  in  the  United  States.  N.  Y.,  1905. 

Dabney,    T.    S.    G.— Life    of.     A    Southern    Planter.     By    Mrs. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  479 

Susan  [Dabney]  Smedes.  [Book  reviewed  by  W.  E.  Gladstone: 
igth  Century,  26:984.]  London,  1889. 

Danvers,  John  Thierry — A  Picture  of  a  Republican  Magistrate. 
N.  Y.f  1808. 

Davidson,  James  Wood — The  Living  Writers  of  the  South. 
N.  Y.,  1869. 

Davis,  Life  of,  with  a  Secret  History  of  the  Southern  Confeder 
acy.  By  E.  A.  Pollard.  Atlanta,  1869. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  Prison  Life  of,  embracing  Details  and  Incidents 
in  his  Captivity.  By  J.  J.  Craven.  N.  Y.,  1866. 

Life  of.     By  F.  H.  Alfriend.     Cincinnati,  1868. 

History,  Short,  of  the  Confederate  States  of  America. 

1890. 

Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confederate  Government.  2  vols. 

N.  Y.,  1881. 

Life  and  Reminiscences  of.  By  distinguished  Men  of 

his  Time.  (Ed.)  J.  W.  Daniel. 

. A  Memoir  by  his  wife,  Mrs.  Varina  Jefferson  Davis. 

1890. 

Davis,  Reuben — Recollections  of  Mississippi  and  Mississippians. 
1891. 

Deane,  Charles  [Ed.]— Smith's  True  Relation  of  Virginia.  Pref 
ace.  1866. 

De  Bow,  J.  D.  B. — Industrial  Resources  of  the  Southern  and 
Western  States.  3  vols.  New  Orleans,  1852-53.  [See  also  the 
Magazine  for  statistics.] 

De  Menil,  Alexander  N. — The  Literature  of  the  Louisiana  Terri 
tory.  St.  Louis,  1904. 

Derby,  James  C— Fifty  Years  among  Authors,  Books,  and  Pub 
lishers.  N.  Y.,  1884. 

De  Tocqueville,  Alexis — Democracy  in  America.  Translated  by 
Henry  Reeve,  Esq.  2  vols.  Cambridge,  1836. 

Dew,  Thomas  R. — An  Essay  on  Slavery.     Richmond,  1849. 

Dowd,  Jerome — The  Negro  Races.  A  Sociological  Study.  N.  Y., 
1908.^ 

Du  Bois,  W.  E.  B. — Bibliography,  Select,  of  the  American  Negro. 
Atlanta  University  Pub.  No.  I.  Atlanta,  1901. 

Enforcement  of  Slave-trade  Laws.  Am.  Hist.  Assoc. 

Report.  1891,  pp.  161-74. 

From  Servitude  to  Service.  Atlanta  University  Pub. 

1905,  pp.  I53-97- 

Souls  of  Black  Folks:  Essays  and  Sketches.  Chicago, 

1903. 

Suppression  of  African  Slave-trade  to  the  United 

States  of  America,  1638-1870.  Harvard  Historical  Studies, 
vol.  I,  1896. 

The  Negro  Artisan;  report  of  a  social  study  .  .  . 

with  the  proceedings  of  the  Seventh  Conference  for  the  Study 
of  the  Negro  Problems,  held  at  Atlanta  University  on  May  27, 
1902.  Atlanta  University  Publications,  No.  7. 


480  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The  Negro  Church;  report  of  a  social  study.  Bibli 
ography,  pp.  6-8.  Atlanta  University  Publications,  No.  8, 
1903. 

The  Negro  Common  School.    Sixth  Conference,  May 

28,  1901.     Atlanta  University  Publications,  No.  6. 

—  The  Philadelphia  Negro;  a  social  study,  with  a  special 
report  on  domestic  service,  by  Isabel  Eaton.  Penn.  Univ.  Pub. 
Polit.  Econ.  and  Public  Law  Series,  No.  14,  1899. 

The  Talented  Tenth.     [See  "The  Negro  Problem," 

PP-  30-75-1 

Du  Bose,  John  W.— Life  and  Times  of  W.  L.  Yancey:  a  history 
of  Political  Parties  in  the  United  States,  1834-1864.  Bir 
mingham,  1892. 

Dunning,  William  Archibald — Constitution  of  the  United  States 
in  the  Civil  War  and  Reconstruction,  1860-67.  Dissertation, 
Columbia  College,  New  York.  1885. 

Essays  on  Civil  War  and  Reconstruction,  and  related 

topics.  N.  Y,  1808. 

Duyckinck,  E.  A.— Cyclopaedia  of  American  Literature.  2  vols. 
N.  Y.,  1855-56. 

Echoes  from  the  South.  (African  Slavery— The  Corner-stone 
of  the  Southern  Confederacy.)  E.  A.  Pollard  (ed.).  Savan 
nah,  March  22,  1861. 

Eggleston,  George  Cary— American  War  Ballads  and  Lyrics. 
1899. 

A  Rebel's  Recollections.     N.  Y.,  1887. 

Recollections  of  a  Varied  Life.     N.  Y.,  1910. 

The  Confederate  War:  Its  Causes  and  its  Conduct. 

A  Narrative  and  Critical  History.  2  vols.  N.  Y.,  1910. 

Elliot,  Jonathan — Debates  of  the  several  State  Conventions  on 
the  Adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution  of  1787.  4  vols.,  and 
suppl.  Washington,  1836. 

Elliott,  E.  N.  (Ed.)— Cotton  is  King,  and  Pro-slavery  Argu 
ments;  comp.  the  writings  of  Hammond,  Harper,  Christy, 
Stringfellow,  Hodge,  Bledsoe,  and  Cartwright.  Augusta, 
1860. 

Pagan,  W.  L.— Southern  War  Songs.     N.  Y.,  1890. 

Federalist:  A  Commentary  on  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  By  Alexander  Hamilton,  James  Madison,  and  John 
Jay. — Ed.,  with  Notes,  illustrative  Documents,  etc.  Paul 
Leicester  Ford.  N.  Y.,  1898. 

Fiske,  Harris  C— Index  to  American  Poetry  and  Plays  in  the 
Collection  of.  Providence,  1874.  (See  Americana:  Cata 
logue  of  the  American  Library  of  the  late  Mr.  George  Brinley 
of  Hartford,  Conn.;  also  American  Bibliography,  Charles 
Evans — Chicago. ) 

Fiske,  John— Old  Virginia  and  Her  Neighbors.  2  vols.  Boston, 
1807.  (See  other  books  by  Fiske  on  the  Revolution  and  on 
New  England.) 

Fitzhugh,  George— Cannibals  All!  or,  Slaves  without  Masters. 
Richmond,  1857. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  481 

Sociology  for  the  South ;  or,  The  Failure  of  Free  Soci 
ety.  Richmond,  1854. 

Fleming,  Walter  L. — Civil  War  and  Reconstruction  in  Alabama. 
N.  Y.,  1905. 

Documentary    History   of    Reconstruction,    Political, 

Military,   Social,   Religious,    Educational,   and   Industrial,    1865 
to  the  present  time.    2  vols.     Cleveland,   1906-1907. 

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Thomas  Nelson  Page.     No.  Am.  Rev.,   178:33-48.     Jan.,  1904. 
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North.     Ray   Stannard   Baker.     McClure,   24:299-314    (Jan.); 

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496  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

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INDEX 


Adams,  H.   A.,  quoted,   139. 

Age,   The,   magazine   of   Civil 

War  period,  327. 
"  Aide-de-Camp,"       McCabe's, 
327. 

Alderman,  Edwin  A.,  141; 
quoted,  220,  434;  cited,  447, 
454- 

^ Allen,    James    Lane,    169,    170, 

463,  464,  473,  474. 

"All  Quiet  along  the  Poto 
mac  To-night,"  346. 

Allston,   Washington,  224,  272. 
Alsop,    George,    41-44. 

"  Ambrose  Letters  on  the  Re 
bellion,"  Kennedy's,  251. 

"  American  Hearts  of  Oak," 
Hewlings',  157. 

"  Anas,"    Jefferson's,    135. 

"Ancient  Law,  The,"  Miss 
Glasgow's,  462. 

"Annals  of  Quodlibet,"  Ken 
nedy's,  251. 

"Art  of  Poesy,"  Jefferson's, 
138. 

"Ashby,"  Mrs.   Preston's,  345. 

"  Ashby,"    Thompson's,    353. 

"Ashes  of   Glory,"   342. 

"At  the  Mercy  of  Tiberius," 
Mrs.  Wilson's,  331,  335. 

"  Audrey,"  Mary  Johnston's, 
470. 

Audubon,  John  James,  224. 

"  Autobiography,"  Johnston's 
461. 

"Autography,"    Poe's,   261. 

Avary,  M.  L.,  320. 


B 

Bagby,  G.  W.,  237. 


Baker,  Ray  Stannard,  441-442. 
"  Balcony        Stories,"        Grace 

Kings,  467. 

Baldwin,  J.  G.,   113,   178,  230- 
233,    338;    quoted,    206-207, 
210. 
"Ballad     of    Trees     and     the 

Master,"   Lanier's,   374. 
Ballagh,  Dr.,  quoted,  6,  95. 
"  Baltimore    Book,    The,"    255. 
"  Barn    Swallow,"    Kennedy's, 

329: 

"Basis  of  Ascendancy,"   Mur 
phy's,  218,  433,  438. 
Bassett,     John     Spencer,     458, 

459- 
"  Battleground,      The,"      Ellen 

Glasgow's,  299,  320,  463. 
"Battle      of      Bunker's      Hill, 

The,"   158. 
"Battle   of   King's   Mountain," 

157- 

"  Beauchampe,"    Simms',    244. 
"  Beaux  and  Belles  of  the  Six 
ties,"  De  Leon's,  352. 
"  Beechenbrook,"     Mrs.     Pres 
ton's,  413. 
Berkeley,    Sir    William,   9,   45, 

101. 
"  Belles       of        Williamsburg, 

The,"    156. 
"  Bench  and  Bar  of  Georgia," 

Miller's,  227. 

"Beulah,"   Mrs.   Wilson's,  335. 
Beverley,  Robert,  58-62. 
Bibles    in    Civil    War    period, 

328. 

"  Bill  Arp,"  character  of,  236. 
"  Bivouac      of       the       Dead," 

O'Hara's,  345. 
Blair,  James,   15,  50-57. 
Bland,   Richard,   145. 


501 


502 


INDEX 


Bledsoe,   216,   309. 

*•  Blockade  Runner/'  Watson's, 

323- 

"  Blue-Grass  Region  of  Ken 
tucky,"  Allen's,  464- 

"Bonnie  Blue  Flag,"  311,  342, 

343- 

a  Bonny  Brown  Hand," 
Hayne's,  393. 

Bowen,  R.  A.,  on  Timrod,  407. 

"  Boy's  Froissart,"  "  Boy's 
King  Arthur,"  etc.,  Lanier's, 
382. 

Brackenridge,  Hugh  Henry, 
158,  237-238. 

"  Bride  of  the  Mistletoe,"  Al 
len's,  463. 

Broadway  Journal,  The,  288. 

Brown,  W.  G.,  218,  220. 

Browne,  William  Hand,  biog 
raphy  of  Stephens  by,  307, 
461. 

Browning,  Lanier  on,  367. 

Burk,   John,    158. 

"  Bunker  Hill ;  or.  The  Death 
of  Warren,"  158. 

Burnett,  Mrs.  Francis  Hodg 
son,  471. 

Burton,  W.  E.,  285. 

Burwell    Papers,   the,   45. 

Byrd,   Evelyn,  73,   149. 

Byrd,  William,  15,  17,  57,  66- 
67. 

Byrd   family,  the,  66-73. 


Cable,  George  W.,  5,  219,  299, 
320,  429,  434-435,  436,  464. 
465,  467,  473- 

Cairnes,  J.  Elliot,  170. 

Calhoun,  John  C,  195.  202, 
203,  207-211. 

"  Candidates,     The,"      drama, 

159- 

"Carlyles,  The,"  Mrs.  Harri 
son's,  471. 

44  Carolina,"  Timrod's,  353. 
386,  405 

Carr,  Dabney,  194, 


Carruthers,    William,   253. 

Cary,  Jenny,  343. 

"  Cavalier,  The,"  Cable's,  465. 

"  Cavaliers  of  Virginia,"  Car 
ruthers',  254. 

Cawein,   Madison,  472. 

"  Centennial  Cantata,"  Lani 
er's,  359.  376,  449-450. 

Century  Magasine,  articles  in, 
on  the  South,  456. 

"  Changed  Brides,"  Mrs. 
Southworth's,  337. 

"  Charlemont,"    Simms',    244. 

"  Charleston,"  poem,   157. 

"  Charleston    Book,   The,"   255. 

Chesnutt,  Charles  W.,  447- 
448,  470. 

Cheves,    Langdon,    210-212. 

"  Christ  in  the  Camp,"  Jones's, 
3i8. 

"Christmas,"    Timrod's,   405- 

"  Clansman,  The,"  Dixon's, 
441. 

Clay,  C.  C,  215. 

Clay,  Henry,  206,  207-213. 

Clay-Clopton,  Mrs.,  223,  297, 
320. 

Gergymen,   books   by,   226-227. 

"Colonel  Carter  of  Carters- 
ville,"  Smith's,  471. 

"Col.  Simon  Suggs,"  charac 
ter  of,  233. 

Compilations,  255. 

"  Conquered  Banner,"  Father 
Ryan's,  342,  35 1. 

Cook,  Ebenezer,  46-49. 

Cooke,  John  Esten,  23,  51,  298, 
320,  326;  quoted,  99,  328; 
final  days  of,  328-330. 

Cooke,    Philip    Pendleton,    271. 

Cooper,  J.  Fenimore,  Simms 
contrasted  with,  239-240. 

Cooper,    Thomas,    180-181. 

"Corn,"  Lanier's,  372-373- 

"Cottage  on  the  Hill," 
Hayne's,  304. 

"Cotton  Boll,  The,"  Timrod's, 
405-406. 

"Cotton  is  King,"  pamphlet, 
216, 


INDEX 


503 


Craddock,  Charles  Egbert,  167, 
464-468,  473- 

Crafts,   William,   221,  272. 

Crawford,  William  H.,  199, 
201. 

"  Creoles  of  Louisiana,"  Ca 
ble's,  464. 

"  Crystal,  The,"  Lanier's,  374, 
390. 

"  Cry  to  Arms,"  Timrod's,  344, 

353,  405. 

Curry,  J.  L.  M.,  220,  312-316, 
338,  429,  431,  432,  441; 
quoted,  322-323. 


Dabney,  Richard,    158,   197-198. 

Dabney,    Virginius,    198. 

Dalcho,    Frederick,    226. 

Dandridge,    Danske,    472. 

Davies,    Samuel,   99-100,    113. 

Davis,  John,    100. 

Davis,  Mrs.  M.  E.  M.,  471. 

Davis,  Norah,  466. 

Davis,   Reuben,  227. 

"  Death  of  General  Montgom 
ery  at  the  Siege  of  Quebec, 
The,"  158. 

"Death  of  Stuart,"  Thomp 
son's,  354. 

De  Bow,   169,  171,  177. 

De  Bow's  Commercial  Review, 
183-184. 

De  Leon,  T.  C,  352. 

"  Deliverance,  The,"  Miss 
Glasgow's,  463. 

De  Tocqueville,  Alexis,  184. 

"  Devota,"   Mrs.   Wilson's,  334. 

Dew,   Thomas  R.,  216. 

"  Disfranchisement,"  Ches- 

nutt's,  447. 

"Dixie,"  258,  343,  344- 

Dixon,  Thomas,  441. 

"  Don  Miff,"  Dabney's,  198. 

Dorsey,   Sarah  Anne,  337. 

Drama  of  Revolutionary  pe 
riod,  158;  of  Ante-bellum 
period,  272-273. 

Drayton,    John,    154. 


Drayton,   William   Henry,    153, 

154- 

"Dr.  Sevier,"  Cable's,  465. 

DuBois,  W.  E.  B.,  421,  422, 
443,  445-446 ;  criticism  of 
Booker  T.  Washington's  the 
ories  by,  444-445- 

"  Dukesborough  Tales,"  John 
ston's,  461. 

Dunbar,  Paul  Laurence,  469. 


Educational  system  in  the 
early  South,  101-106. 

Edwards,  Harry  Stillwell,  470. 

Eggleston,  George  Cary,  320, 
322. 

Elliott,  Sarah  Barnwell,  471. 

Elliott,   Stephen,  224. 

Emmett,    Daniel    Decatur,   343. 

"  English  Novel,  The,"  Lani 
er's,  376,  377,  381,  382,  383. 

"  Ethnogenesis,"  Timrod's,  405. 


"  Farmer  Man,"  Ticknor's,  410. 
Faulkner,  Charles  James,  182. 
"  Female    Patriotism,"    drama, 

158. 

Fiske,    John,    quoted,    135. 
Fitzgerald,  Bishop,  226. 
Flash,  Henry. Lynden,  345,  348. 
"  Florida,"    Lanier's,    361,    372. 
"  Flower    de    Hundred,"    Mrs. 

Harrison's,  471. 
"  Flush    Times    in    Alabama," 

Baldwin's,  178,  231-232. 
Folk-lore        and        folk-songs, 

negro,    256-257,    468-470. 
"  Following     the     Color-Line," 

441- 

Forsyth,  quoted,   186. 
Fortier,  Alcee,  466-467. 
Foster,    Stephen   C.,  257. 
J^x^^hnZjr.1_j67,   464,   465, 

467,  468,  473. 
Freedmen's    Bureau,    the,    421, 

422,  423. 


504 

"Free  Joe,"  Harris's,  470. 
Freneau,  Philip,   115. 


INDEX 


"Gabriel    Tolliver,"     Harris's, 

471- 

"Gander  Pulling,  The,"  235. 
Garden,   Alexander,  81-84. 
Gayarre,  C.  E.  A.,  218,  220. 
"  George   Balcombe,"   Tucker's, 

253-254. 

"  Georgia  Scenes,"  Long- 
street's,  178,  234-235,  461. 

"  Georgians,  The,"  Harben's, 
436,  462. 

Glasgow,  Ellen,  183,  299,  320, 
473 ;  special  consideration 
of,  462-463;  the  verse  of, 
471- 

Goetzel,  S.  H.f  327. 

"Gold   Bug/'    Poe's,  260. 

Gooch,  Governor,  9. 

"  Good  News  from  Virginia," 
Whitaker's,  30-31. 

Gosse,   Philip  Henry,   199-201. 

Goulding,   Francis  R.,  337. 

Grady,  Henry  W.,  337,  450- 
453- 

Graham,  George  R.,  285. 

"  Grandissimes,    The,"    Cable's, 

465- 

Griswold,   Rufus  W.,  285. 
"Guilty  or  Not  Guilty,"  Dimi- 

try's,  327- 
"Guy   Rivers,"   Simms',  245. 


H 


Hammond,  John,  39-41,  216. 
"Hanford,"  Tucker's,   114. 
Harben,  Will  N.,  436,  461,  462, 

466,  473- 

Harby,  Isaac,  273. 
Harper 's  Magazine,  articles  in, 

on  the   South,  456. 
Harris,  G.   W.,  236. 
Harris,     Joel     Chandler,     234, 

236,  33#,  466,  468,  470,  471. 
Harris,  Mrs.  L.  H.,  460. 


Harrison,   Mrs.   Burton,  471. 

Harrison,  James,  cited,  285. 

Hawks,    Bishop,  226. 

Hawthorne,  N.,  analogy  be 
tween  Poe  and,  290. 

Hayne,  Paul  Hamilton,  212, 
340,  341;  special  considera 
tion  of,  384-397. 

Helper,  H.  R.,  213-215. 

Henry,  Patrick,  69,  108,  1 10, 
in,  112;  special  considera 
tion  of,  116-123;  mentioned 
in  connection  with  Wash 
ington,  126. 

Hentz,   Caroline   Lee,  337. 

Hewlings,  J.  W.,  157. 

"Hills,  The,"  Ticknor's,  411. 

"  Hireling  and  the  Slave," 
Grayson's,  344. 

Hooper,   Johnson    Jones,    236. 

Hope,  James  Barren,  353,  355- 
357- 

"  Horse-Shoe  Robinson,"  Ken 
nedy's,  244,  250-251. 

Houston,  Sam,  229. 

"  How  the  Times  Served  the 
Virginians,"  Baldwin's,  233. 

Humor  and  humorists  of 
Ante-bellum  period,  229-238. 


"  Impending    Crisis,"    Helper's, 

213-215. 
"  Industrial    Resources    of    the 

South,"  De  Bow's,   184. 
"Inez,"    Mrs.     Wilson's,     331, 

335- 
"  Infelice,"       Mrs.       Wilson's, 

331,  334- 
Ingle,     Edward,     quoted,     167, 

184. 
Iredell,   James,    105. 


Jackson,   Andrew,   210. 
Jackson,    Henry    R.,   348. 
Jamison,  Mrs.  C.  V.  S.,  467. 
Jeancs,    Anna   T.,    430. 
Jefferson,    Thomas,     109,     117, 


INDEX 


505 


118,  1 19;  special  considera 
tion  of,  130-142. 

"  John  Marvel,  Assistant," 
Page's,  464. 

Johns  Hopkins  University, 
Lanier's  connection  with, 
381-382. 

Johnson,  James  Gibson,  337. 

Johnston,   Mary,   470. 

Johnston,  Richard '  Malcolm, 
234,  307,  338;  special  con 
sideration  of,  461-462. 

Jonas,  S.  A.,  347. 

Jones,  C.  C,  218. 

Jones,  Hugh,  52,  62-65. 

Jones,  J.  W.,  318. 

"  Jones's  Private  Argyment," 
Lanier's,  385. 

"Journal  of  War  Times," 
Mrs.  Preston's,  414. 

^Jud  Brownin's  Account  of 
Rubinstein's  Playing,"  237. 

"  Juvenalia,"  Hayne's,  391. 


K 


Kemble,  Fannie,   170,  223. 

Kennedy,  John  P.,  Life  of 
Wirt  by,  192,  194;  men 
tioned,  220,  230;  special  con 
sideration  of,  247-252,  Poe's 
meeting  with,  282-283. 

Kent,  Charles  W.,  cited,  374. 

"  Kentucky  Cardinal,"  Allen's, 
463- 

Key,  Francis  Scott,  258. 

King,  Grace,  464,  465,  467. 

"Kinkaid's  Battery,"  Cable's, 
209,  320,  465- 

"  Knights  of  the  Horseshoe," 
Carruthers',  254. 

Ku  Klux  Klan,  the,  420,  424, 
425. 


"  Lady     Baltimore,"     Wister's. 

473- 
"  Lady  Jane,"   Mrs.  Jamison's, 

467. 


Lamar,  L.  Q.  C,  450. 

Lamar,  M.  B.,  271. 

Lanier,  Sidney,  180,  226,  252, 
268-269,  272,  337,  341,  342, 
449-450,  453;  Thomas  Jeffer 
son  contrasted  with,  139; 
special  consideration  of,  358- 
383. 

Laureate  of  the  Lost  Cause, 
Father  Ryan  as,  349. 

Laurens,    Henry,    146-148. 

Law,  primogeniture  of,  in  the 
South,  113-114. 

Lawson,  John,  79-81. 

"Lays  of  the  Palmetto," 
Simms',  262-263. 

"Leah  and  Rachel,"  Ham 
mond's,  39. 

Le7  Contes,  the,  224,  360. 

Lee,  Henry,  funeral  oration  on 
Washington  by,  124. 

Lee,  Robert  E.,  326,  412. ^ 

Legare,  Hugh  S.,  103,  2T2, 221- 
222,  271. 

"  Leoni  di  Monota  and  Other 
Poems,"  Hope's,  355. 

"Letters  of  the  British  Spy," 
Wirt's,  154,  169,  191. 

Le  Vert,  Octavia  Walton,  222- 
224. 

"Lewis  Rand,"  Mary  John 
ston's,  470. 

Libraries  in  the  South,  459. 

"Little  Giffin  of  Tennessee," 
345,  4io. 

"Little  Sergeant  Banks,"  Mo 
ses',  345- 

Lodge,  H.  C.,  estimate  of 
Washington  by,  126,  127. 

Longstreet,  Augustus  B.,  178, 
233-235,  338. 

"Lorena,"  Webster's,  327,  342. 

"  Louisiana  Studies,"  Fortier's, 
466-467. 

Loveman,  Robert,  472. 

"  Lower  South  in  American 
History,"  Brown's,  218. 

Lowndes,  Rawlins,  210-212. 

"  Lyric  of  Action,"  Hayne's, 
395- 


5o6  INDEX 

V  •  Mocking-Bird,"  Hayne's,  396. 

"  Mocking-Bird."    Pike's,    270. 
-  Macaria,-  Mrs.  Wilson's,  327,     *  Modern   Chrtalry."    Bracken- 

riflp  *  -r--^ 

as  a  poet.  156.     *  Moral  Change,"  Simms',  264. 
s    Raid."   Hayne's,     Morgan,   Senator,  450. 

Moses,   Dr,    "Little    <Ti  r&isal 


C-.-TJC,     : 
Defchiae, 


ion,    20L  nrks"    :;..  ^5 

' "    Cable's.     *  *»--•-     A  j *  —  • 


DoBy.  M9.  -MS      ::und     in     a     Bcr.le." 

143-144.  US-         Foe's,  262. 

,f        <*^^     ^af,  *m      -  f J        T»    m      ai        •— ^ 

t^-fc_ ^   ^ *  U.  t  ».f  •        ""  ~  " 

Mary  N,  *rr  Crad- 


%^«w«klw       y»  1 1  !•  •-      ^«  «i  1 .1 1 «~       M 

juupny.     •"*igpy    vvaroner,    9. 
183,  2J&,  220,  4^6,  432.  435- 


"  Natnre-Metapbors,*    Lanier's, 
"New  Orleans,"  Grace  King's. 

-New   Orleans    Book.    The." 
Faber.- 
Harriet.  165.  184.         Newport,  Colonel,  23. 

or/     Maryland.'     "New     Sooth."     Grad/s    ad- 


-Nights   with   Uncle    Renos," 

Harris;*.   3*3.   4^6,   468. 
-— .;  -  --71-  Norwood,  H 

\f  ^^V     ltij.i_-i_iu     >^k  —  Vot^s    on 

Meek.  Alexander  B,  rfB.  r^  son's,  134. 

rf^.     266-267;     yuitd.     174,  Novels  and  novelists  of  Ante- 

:-=    :-?      v  beflnm  period.  239  ff-;  P»»- 

F^  cited,  230,  231*  cut-day,  46i~4j74» 


15 L  -Octopus,'  NorrtsX  463- 


Ode      to      the      Confederate 
T  Ane  Manry's.  zzd         Dead,"  TimnxTs.  405^ 
F,  442.  Ogden,  Robert  C.  431- 

in  the  Sooth,  83.          O'Hara.  Theodore.  272,  345* 
Michei  Richard.  3»  "Old  Bachelor."  Win's.  104. 

of  Lamer  by,     -Old  Churches.  Ministers  and 
p •  ^        Yn  * 

by.  226-227.  Meade  s,  22d 


INDEX 


507 


"Old     Creole    Days,"    Cable's, 

465. 
"Old  Gentleman  of  the  Black 

Stock,"   Page's,  172. 
Oldmixon,  60. 
"  Old  South,  The,"  Page's,  93, 

464. 
Olmsted,   Frederick  Law,    170- 

171,  213. 

Oratory,  in  Southern  litera 
ture,  107  ff. ;  of  Ante-bellum 
period,  191-217;  of  Civil 
War  period,  295-314;  Gra- 
dy's,  450-453. 

"Our  Faith  in  '61,"  Requier's, 
342. 

"  Ovid  Bolus,  Esq.,"  Baldwin's, 
232-233. 

Owen,  Thomas  M.,  184. 

P 

Page,  Thomas  Nelson,  93,  153, 

172,  218,    237,    446-448,    461, 
47i»  473;  as  the  successor  of 
J.  P.  Kennedy,  249;  the  suc 
cessor  of  J.   E.  Cooke,  329; 
effect  of  Northern  residence 
on,  464;  as  a  poet,  471. 

Page,  Walter  H.,  438-440. 
Palmer,  J.  W..  345- 
**  Partisan,  The,"  Simms',  244. 
"  Partisan    Leader,"     Beverley 
Tucker's,    114,    177,    252-253, 

29& 

"  Party     Leaders,"     Baldwin's, 

113,  206,  210,  253. 
Peabody  Education  Fund,  427- 

430. 

Peck.  Samuel  Minturn,  472. 
u  Pelham,"  Randall's,  353. 
Pendleton,  Edmund.  112,  113. 
Penn,   Shadrach.  228-229. 
Penn  Monthly,  The,  286. 
Percy,  George,  23,  24-26. 
Petigru,    James    L.,    196,    199, 

212,  213. 

Pickett  Albert  J.,  218. 
Pike.  Albert,  184,  270,  272,  346, 


Pinckney,    Charles,    113. 

Pinkney,    William,    21 1,    271. 

Plantation  melodies,  256-257, 
468-470. 

"  Planter's  Northern  Bride, 
A,"  Mrs.  Hentz's,  337. 

Pleasants,  John  H.,  212. 

Poe,  Edgar  Allan,  97,  130,  149, 
252,  256-2=7:  estimate  of  W. 
Q.  Simms,  246-247 ;  as  an  ex 
ponent  of  Southern  poetry, 
259-260 ;  contrasted  with 
Simms  as  a  poet,  262;  spe 
cial  consideration  of,  276-291. 

"  Poem  Outlines,"  Lanier's, 
36/. 

"Poeta  in  Rure,"  Ticknor's. 
411. 

Poetry  and  poets  of  the  Revo- 
tionary  period,  154-159;  of 
Civil  'War  period,  339  ff; 
present-day,  471-473. 

Pory.  John,  32-34. 

Power.  Tyrone,   184,  223. 

"  Prayers '  of  the  South," 
Father  Ryan's,  350. 

Prentice,  George  D.,  227-229, 
272. 

"  Prenticeana,"   229. 

"  Present  South,"  Murphy's, 
435,  437-438. 

Preston,  Mrs.  Margaret  Jun- 
kin,  320,  340,  341,  ^45,  384, 
390:  special  consideration  of, 
412-414. 

"  Prophet  of  the  Great  Smoky 
Mountain,"  Craddock's,  468. 

Pry  or,  Mrs.  Roger  A-,  207, 
320. 

"  Psalm  of  the  West,"  Lanier's, 
375,  378. 

Publishers  of  Civil  War  pe 
riod,  326-327- 


"Raciads,  The,"  Crafts',  272. 
Ramsay.    David,    151-154- 
Ramsay,  Martha  Laurens,  150- 
152." 


508 


INDEX 


Randall,  James  Ryder,  344 
353- 

Randolph,  John,  112,  206-207, 
213. 

"  Rationale  of  Verse,"  Tim- 
rod's,  408. 

"  Raven,   The,"   Poe's,  288. 

Ravenel,  Mrs.,  cited,  212. 

"  Rebel's  Recollections,"  Eg- 
gleston's,  322. 

"  Rebuilding  of  Old  Common 
wealths,"  W.  H.  Page's,  439. 

"  Recollections  of  Mississippi," 
Davis's,  227. 

"Red    Book,   The,"   248. 

"  Red  Rock,"  Page's,  471. 

Reese,  Lizette  Woodworth, 
472. 

"Reign  of  Law,"   Allen's,  463, 

474; 

Requier,  Augustus  Julian,  342. 

"  Resignation,"  Tucker's,  114. 

"  Retirement,"    Timrod's,   405. 

"  Retribution,"  Mrs.  South- 
worth's,  337. 

"  Retrospects  and  Prospects," 
Lanier's,  366. 

Rhodes,  James  Ford,   170. 

Rich,    R.,   23-24. 

Rives,   Amelie,   471. 

"  Rob  of  the  Bowl,"  Kennedy's, 
251. 

Rolfe,  John,  23. 

"  Romance  of  a  Plain  Man," 
Miss  Glasgow's,  462-463. 

"  Romantic  Passages  in  South 
western  History,"  168. 

"  Rose  Morals,"  Lanier's,  373. 

Russell,  Irwin,  472. 

Russell's  Magazine,  388. 

Rutledge,  John,  115. 

Ryan,  Abram  Joseph,  346,  352, 
394- 


"St.     Elmo,"    Mrs.     Wilson's, 

335- 
Sandys,  Sir  Edwin,  14,  27,  32, 

34- 


Sandys,  George,  34-36,  54. 

Schurz,  Carl,  419. 

"  Science    of    English    Verse," 

Lanier's,  370,  381,  382,  383. 
Scribner's     Magazine,     articles 

in,  on  the  South,  455-456. 
Sears,   Barnas,  428-429. 
Seawell,  Molly  Elliott,  471. 
"  Sentinel        Songs,"        Father 

Ryan's,  350. 

"  Shakspere     and     His     Fore 
runners,"    Lanier's,   366,   380. 
Shaler,  N.  S.,  quoted,  12;  cited, 

230,   453;    John    Esten    Cook 

contrasted  with,  329-330. 
"  Siege  of  Savannah,"  157. 
"  Silence,"    Simms',  264. 
"Silent    South,"    Cable's,    434- 

435- 

Simms,  J.   Marion,  224. 
Simms,   William   Gilmore,    168, 

176,  205,  216,   220,  221,  388; 

special  consideration  of,  239- 

247;  contrasted  with  Poe  as 

a  poet,  262. 
Slater,  John  F.,  430. 
Smedes,  Susan  D.,  297. 
Smith,  Charles  H.,  236. 
Smith,  F.  Hopkinson,  471. 
Smith,    John,    17,    19-23;    Stra- 

chey  indebted  to,  27-28. 
Society    for    the    Propagation 

of  the  Gospel,  104. 
Songs,   plantation,    of   negroes, 

256-257,     468-470;     of     Civil 

War  period,  327,  339-348. 
Sonnets,  Simms',  264-265,  269; 

of     Paul     Hamilton     Hayne, 

395-397;  Timrod's,  408. 
"  Sonny,"        Ruth        McEnery 

Stuart's,  470. 
"  Sot-weed        Factor,        The," 

Cook's,  46-48. 

"  Sot-weed    Redivivus."    49. 
"Souls    of    Black    Folk,"    Du 

Bois',  444-445- 
"  South  in  the  Building  of  the 

Nation,  The,"  460. 
"  Southern    Cross,    The,"    327, 

345- 


INDEX 


509 


Southern    Field   and    Fireside, 

Southern     Illustrated     News, 

327- 

Southern  Literary  Gazette,  388. 

Southern  Literary  Messenger, 
183-184,  274;  Poe's  connec 
tion  with,  283-284. 

Southern  Monthly,  327. 

"  Southern  Planter,  A,"   198. 

Southern  Punch,  327. 

Southern  Review,  The,  183, 
221. 

"Southern  Sidelights,"  Ingle's, 
184. 

Southern  Tract  Society,  328. 

"  Southrons,  hear  your  country 
call  you/'  346. 

Southworth,  Mrs.  E.  D.  E.  N., 

337- 

Sparks,  Jared,  124-125. 

"  Speckled  Bird,  A,"  Mrs.  Wil 
son's,  334,  335. 

Spotswood,     Governor,     56-57, 

72-73- 

"  Spring,"    Timrod's,   405. 
Stanton,  Frank  L.,  472. 
*  Star-spangled    Banner,"    258. 
Stedman,  E.   C,  on   Poe,  256- 

257. 
Stephens,    Alexander    H.,    297, 

306-310. 

Stevens,  Thaddeus,  419. 
Stith,  William,  19,  35,  78-79. 
"  Storm-Signal,"   Mertin's,  442 
Stowe,    Harriet    Beecher,    169- 

170. 
Strachey,  William,   17,   19,  26- 

30. 
"  Strange     True      Stories      of 

Louisiana,"   Cable's,    467. 
Stuart,   Ruth   McEnery,  470. 
Stylus,  The,  286. 
"Summer    Bower,"    Timrod's, 

405. 

"  Sunrise,"  Lanier's,  373. 
"Surrey     of     Eagle's     Nest," 

Cooke's,  329. 
"  Sut     Lovengood,"     character 

of,  236. 


*  Swallow    Barn,"    Kennedy's, 

248-249. 
"  Sword  of  Robert  Lee,"  Father 

Ryan's,  351. 
'  Symphony,"      Lanier's,      373, 

374,  376-377,  385- 


Tabb,  John  Banister,  349,  363. 
Taber,  William  R,  212. 
Tailfer,  Patrick,  84-86. 
"  Taking  the  Census,"  Bagby's, 

237. 
"  Tales   of   the   Grotesque   and 

Arabesque,"   Poe's,  285. 
"Tallulah   and   Other   Poems," 

Jackson's,  348. 
"Teague  O'Reagan,"  character 

of,  238. 

Terhune,  Mrs.,  337. 
Text-books      of      Civil      War 

period,  327-328. 
"  Theory  of  Poetry,"  Timrod's, 

407-408. 
Thompson,  John  Reuben,  353- 

354- 
Thompson,    Maurice,    visit    of, 

to  Hayne,  393-394;  cited,  410, 

412. 
Thompson,     William     Tappan, 

235-236. 
"Through     the     Pass,"     Mrs. 

Preston's,  414. 
Ticknor,    Francis    Orrery,   345, 

382,  409-412. 
"Tiger    Lilies,"    Lanier's,    361, 

362,  363,  365- 
Tim  rod,   Henry,  341,   344,  346, 

353,  384,  386,  308-409- 
Timrod,  William  HM  399. 
"  To  Have  and  to  Hold,"  Mary 

Johnston's,  470. 

"  Toinette's  Philip,"  Mrs.  Jami 
son's,  467. 

Toombs,    Robert,   297,   302-306. 
Tourgee,  Albion  W.,  457. 
"  Trail  of  the  Lonesome  Pine," 

Fox's,  468. 
Trent,  W.  P.,  mentioned,  108, 


INDEX 


171,  271,  295,  388,  458;  Life 

of  Simms  by,  240,  244,  246. 
Troup,     George     M.,     201-205, 

303. 
Tucker,     Beverley,     114,      177, 

252-253,  298. 
Tucker,  George,   194. 
Tucker,    St.    George,    114,    121, 

156. 

Tulane  University,  430. 
"  Two    Runaways,"    Edwards', 

470. 
Tyler,   Moses    Coit,    references 

to,  15,  18-19,  46,  57- 


U 


"  Uncle  Remus,"  Harris's,  466, 
468;  Lanier's  opinion  of,  383. 

"  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"   169. 

University  of  Virginia,  55 ;  Jef 
ferson  the  founder  of,  131, 
138-141;  Poe's  life  at,  279- 
280. 

"Up  from  Slavery,"  Washing 
ton's,  444. 

V 

"Vashti,"    Mrs.    Wilson's,    336. 
Virginia,  Beverley 's  "  History  " 

of,  58-62. 
"  Virginia  Comedians,"  Cooke's, 

329. 

"  Virginia  Heart  of  Oaks,"  156. 
"  Virginia    Girl     in    the    Civil 

War,  A,"  Avary's,  320. 
"  Virginian,      The,"      Wister's 

"Virginians  of  the  Valley,* 
Ticknor's,  410. 

"  Vision  of  Poesy,"  Timrod's, 
403-404. 

"Voice  of  the  People,  The," 
Miss  Glasgow's,  463. 

4  Voyage  to  Virginia,"  Nor 
wood's,  36. 

\M 
Waddell,  Moses,  199. 


"War     between     the     States," 

Stephens',  307,  315. 
Washington,    Booker   T.,    420- 

421,  423,  430. 
Washington,   George,   in,   123- 

130,  442-444- 
"  Washington     Ode,"     Hope's, 

356. 
Watterson,    Henry,    228,    229, 

337,  451- 

"  Wearing  of  the  Gray," 
Cooke's,  320. 

Weedon,  Howard,  469. 

Wecms,  Life  of  Washington 
by,  123-124,  153. 

Welby,  Mrs.,  271. 

Wharton,   Charles   Henry,    158. 

Wharton,  Edith,  references  to, 
334,  383- 

"Wheel  of  Life,"  Miss  Glas 
gow's,  462. 

"When  this  Cruel  War  is 
Over,"  327. 

Whitaker,  Alexander,  30-32. 

White,   Father   Andrew,   37-39. 

White,  T.  W.,  283. 

Whitefield,  George,  81-84. 

Whitman,  Walt,  contrasted 
with  Lanier,  377-378. 

Wilde,  Richard  Henry,  205, 
259,  271,  272. 

Wilkinson,  Eliza,  97,  115,  149- 
150. 

"Will  and  the  Wing,  The," 
Hayne's,  389. 

William  and  Mary  College, 
founding  of,  53-55;  decline 
of,  after  the  Revolution,  138- 
140. 

Willington    School,   the,   199. 

Willis,  N.  P.,  Poe's  association 
with,  287-288. 

Wilson,  Augusta  Evans,  306, 
326,  352;  special  considera 
tion  of,  330-337- 

Wingfield,    Edward   Maria,    23. 

Wirt,  William,  on  Patrick 
Henry,  121,  122-123;  men 
tioned,  153,  154,  167-168,  191- 
195- 


INDEX 


Wise,  Henry  A.,  215.  v 

Wister,    Owen,    124,   473.  ' 

Women     of     the     Civil     War      Yancey,   W.  L.,   108,   185,  297, 


period,   319-322. 


300-302,  305,  306-307. 


Woodberry,     George     Edward,      "  Yemassee,      The," 


cited,  282. 
Woodrow,  James,  226,  360. 
World's     Work,     Articles     in, 

438-440. 
Wythe,  Chancellor  George,  102 


Simms's, 
Ode, 


240,  245. 

Yorktown       Centennial 
Hope's,  357- 

"  Young    Marooners,      Gould- 
ing's,  337. 


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Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4  days 

prior  to  due  date 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


EC  17 1990 


fiT'Ta  Cruz  Jrtnc 


JUI   9. 


LtU  zi-&zm~lV''*  ueoerai  norary 

(R7057«l  0)476—  A-32  UniTersity  of  Calif ornim 

Berkeley 


£  1 03745 


